Funds envisaged by the Recovery and Resilience Facility should also be invested in the digital transformation and green transition of the news media and the audiovisual sector, EU culture ministers concluded at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

“The message is to launch a new investment cycle and use the recovery and resilience plan for this sector, which is among the sectors most affected by the coronavirus pandemic,” Croatian Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen-Korzinek said.

Portuguese Culture Minister Graca Fonseca, who chaired the meeting, said that the news media and the audiovisual sector, which are very important for democratic debate and cultural diversity in Europe, were faced with great challenges resulting from changes in viewers’ habits and the loss of revenue from advertisement, with the pandemic putting additional pressure on them.

The minister said that the meeting adopted conclusions on ways to help the sectors recover from the crisis and emerge from it stronger.

According to European Commission data, the annual turnover of the audiovisual sector and the news media sector is €193 billion. Both sectors have been hit hard by the pandemic and revenue from advertisement has dropped by more than 20%, and European cinemas have also reported huge losses.

Obuljen-Korzinek said the meeting discussed new sources of funding for the restoration of cultural heritage, and she noted that 1.97% of the funding under Croatia’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan was intended for the cultural sector.

Some of the funds will be directed at the media, for fact-checking systems and assistance to professional journalism while some will be used to digitalise archives and reform the conservation system, she said, underlining the importance of the reform as it would enable citizens to obtain many documents, such as building and other permits, much faster.

The Croatian plan also envisages funding for the renovation of cultural heritage through the energy renovation of buildings, she said.