The European Commission on Friday adopted the European Media Freedom Act which includes rules designed to "protect media pluralism and independence" in the European Union, state news agency Hina said on Friday.

“The proposed Regulation includes, among others, safeguards against political interference in editorial decisions and against surveillance,” Hina cited publicly available press release published on the European Commission’s website.

“It puts a focus on the independence and stable funding of public service media as well as on the transparency of media ownership and of the allocation of state advertising… It also sets out measures to protect independence of editors and disclose conflicts of interest… Finally, the Act will address the issue of media concentrations and create a new independent European Board for Media Services, comprised of national media authorities,” the European Commission said.

Hina did not clarify any details about the measures included in the new legislation.

The European Commission’s Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, was quoted as saying that over the past years various forms of pressure on the media have been seen.

“It is high time to act. We need to establish clear principles: no journalist should be spied on because of their job; no public media should be turned into propaganda channel. This is what we are proposing today for the first time ever: common safeguards to protect media freedom and pluralism in the EU,” state agency Hina cited Jourova as saying.