The Security4Media association (S4M) has announced the creation of a new pillar on Media Sovereignty, aiming to strengthen the resilience of European media. Chaired by ORF CTO Harald Kräuter, the initiative brings broadcasters, industry collaborators and liaison bodies together to establish priorities, align development roadmaps and produce measurable outcomes.
Responding to the industry’s continuing transition into an AI-powered and data-driven era, the pillar aims to enable organisations to create, distribute, and preserve content that supports informed societies. Media Sovereignty joins Cybersecurity and Content Provenance, becoming the third pillar in S4M’s portfolio. The pillar aims to devise guidelines and best practices for establishing sovereign infrastructures meeting the following core criteria:
- Trusted: designed with transparent governance, full compliance with EU data protection laws, and specific safeguards for media requirements.
- Interoperable: built on open standards to prevent vendor lock-in and facilitate portability across systems.
- Resilient: engineered to ensure continuity of vital public-interest media services during disruptions.
- Ethical: embedding principles of fairness, accountability, and traceability in AI-driven processes.
- Sustainable: promoting transparency, collaboration, and actionable measures to reduce carbon footprints.
S4M is developing a comprehensive blueprint to empower organisations to implement these principles, defining objective measures and criteria enabling the assessment of ‘sovereignty level’. The blueprint will support media organisations to align with sovereignty requirements and aid procurement processes.
The association places strong emphasis on prioritising sovereignty criteria that is unique to the media industry, and will maintain active links with relevant bodies and groups, such as the EBU Cloud Strategy Group. S4M invites new industry partners to join in its work to define and strengthen the European media ecosystem.
