26/07/2024 - The organisations ask the EU to guarantee cultural diversity and freedom of expression, to further regulate the use of AI and to ensure fair remuneration and representation for writers and directors

This week, the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA) and the Federation of Screenwriters of Europe (FSE) published a joint call to empower European audiovisual diversity. The call is part of an eight-page booklet titled “Culture is Democracy, Democracy is Culture.”

FERA and FSE highlight how “film and television drama are one of the most potent ways in which our European societies interrogate and try to understand our world, its problems and their possible solutions.” 

“Screenwriters and film and television directors are, despite limited resources, organised at the European level and in this brief note, congratulate you on your election and call on you, as an incoming Member of the European Parliament, to support the strengthening of European Cultures in all of their wonderful diversity,” the two orgs add.

FERA and FSE’s three priority focus areas for the next five years are “cultural diversity and freedom of expression,” “artificial intelligence, the AI Act and the future of European creation” and “ensuring fair remuneration and collective representation for European screenwriters and directors.”

In reference to the first priority, the two bodies underscore that “audiovisual creation in Europe is under unprecedented pressure” owing to the disruption brought by the rise of global streamers, “the unknown but certain uptake of AI” and the uncertain future of pubcasters and the control of media and arts seen as “electorally advantageous.”

Speaking about artificial intelligence, FERA and FSE point out: “Plagued by legal uncertainty, digital hallucinations and a deepening caution about its commercial prospects, Generative AI and large language models are nonetheless rushing into every aspect of citizens’ lives. Its developers see human creativity as an area ripe for assault. The adoption of the European AI Act, welcome though it is, is only a first step. Transparency, consent and remuneration for the use of screenwriters’ and directors’ works remain unresolved.”

Concerning the third priority, FERA and FSE explain how “Title IV Chapter 3 of the 2019 Copyright Directive, intended to protect European authors and performers, and improved by the European Parliament, has not yet been effectively implemented in industry practise.”

On pages 6-8, FERA and FSE touch on some legal frameworks that need to be revised and ask the EU some urgent questions that need to be answered in order to empower the aforementioned audiovisual diversity.

You can find out more and access the full document here.

To date, FERA represents film and TV directors at the European level, with 46 organisations as members from 31 countries. Founded in 1980, it speaks for more than 20,000 professional European screen directors, advocating for their cultural, creative and economic interests. Meanwhile, FSE is a network of national and regional associations, guilds and unions of writers for the screen in Europe, created in June 2001. It comprises 32 organisations from 26 countries, representing some 10,000 screenwriters in Europe.