False medical advice and conspiracy theories on COVID-19 and misleading news on governments measures have appeared on social media and messaging apps. In the UK, the Prime Minister's address to the country ordering the lock down was one of the most watched broadcast in UK television history.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is stressing the importance of providing citizens with access to authoritative information on the spread of the epidemic in the different EU countries.

Cullen International has just published a report covering measures taken in some of the countries most hit by the health emergency.

These measures range from avoiding the spread of online disinformation and promoting access to authoritative and accurate information to facilitating access to terrestrial television, public service broadcasting and entertainment during the lock down. Some countries have also taken measures to mitigate the economic impact of confinement measures on the cinema and audiovisual industry.

Examples are:

• cooperation with major social media platforms on the detection of false information and to give visibility to official sources of information on coronavirus in search results (Italy and UK);
• reducing binding media chronology rules to make films available earlier on television and on-demand/streaming services (France);
• ensuring continued reception of terrestrial television (Spain);
• allocating public resources to a special fund to sustain the cinema and audiovisual sector (Italy).

To access the full report, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to European Media service.