PRCA responds to ​EU Copyright Directive vote

Responding to the European Parliament vote on the EU Copyright Directive on 26 March – which includes the “link tax” and “upload filter” Articles – the PRCA has criticised the move and called for serious efforts to mitigate the unintended consequences of the Directive.

Francis Ingham MPRCA, Director General, PRCA, said: “With the copyright reforms rubber-stamped, every single institution involved must now shift their focus to mitigating the very worst unintended consequences.

“As the PR and communications industry has said time and again, link taxes and upload filters threaten the core principle of access to information. We remain deeply concerned that the supposedly-good intentions simply do not add up and that the EU Copyright Directive represents a misguided attempt to regulate the internet in a way that is as detrimental to practitioners as it is to the public. Ultimately, this will hamstring aggregating websites and applications and drastically reduce the public’s ability to engage properly with news and content.

“We must recognise the campaigning from both sides and the genuine fears that internet campaigners hold. Thousands protested. This comes, ironically, at a time when we need the public to engage with the news more than ever.

“Instead, we risk chilling online engagement with overreaching rules on copyright.”

Related posts

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.