Roads to post-COVID recovery in culture, in the audiovisual and media sector

The cultural wealth of Europe will be fundamental to the recovery of the media and audiovisual sector after the COVID-19 pandemic, while at the same time boosting competitiveness, in the opinion of the Portuguese Minister of Culture.

“The pandemic has accelerated trends and challenges in the media and audiovisual sector”, according to Graça Fonseca, who pointed to the fall in advertising revenue in the first case and the closure of cinemas in the second, a context taken advantage of by “online platforms [for content distribution] to make themselves even stronger”, as well as the change in the habits of citizens.

The Minister believes that it is therefore important “to boost competitiveness, both nationally and internationally, and focus on the cultural wealth of Europe, on our diversity and creativity, as elements that set us apart”. Graça Fonseca was speaking to journalists after the meeting of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council, which she chaired in Brussels.

The Council of the European Union announced that a set of conclusions for the audiovisual sector had been approved, stressing that the Member States should take advantage of the Recovery and Resilience Facility to speed up the digital transformation and the transformation in the media and audiovisual sector.

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Culture professionals need more protection

On behalf of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU i, the Minister of Culture said that the 27 Member States must work together in order to improve access to post-pandemic funding for cultural agents, with “more and better synergies between programmes under the European Union framework”.

Graça Fonseca emphasised that “we must increase the resilience of the professionals in the cultural and creative sectors”, particularly hard hit by the effects of COVID-19, developing “a fair and sustainable labour market focusing especially on the social protection of these professionals”.