HUNDREDS of journalists today called on European officials to take action against Google over its refusal to pay media companies for displaying their content, in defiance of a strict new European Union copyright law.

France was the first country to ratify the law, which was passed this year and comes into force tomorrow to ensure publishers are compensated when their work is displayed online.

But, Google last month said articles, pictures and videos will be shown in search results only if media firms consent to let the tech giant use them for free.

If they refuse, only a headline and a bare link to the content will appear, said Google, almost certainly resulting in a loss of visibility and potential ad revenue for publishers.

Some 800 journalists, photographers, film-makers and media CEOs signed an open letter published in newspapers across Europe, urging governments to ensure that Google and other tech firms comply with the new EU rule.

“The law risks being stripped of all meaning before it even comes into force,” said the letter, calling Google’s move “a fresh insult to national and European sovereignty”.

“The existing situation, in which Google enjoys most of the advertising revenue generated by the news that it rakes in without any payment, is untenable and has plunged the media into a crisis that is deepening each year.”

The presidents of the European Alliance of News Agencies and European Newspaper Publishers’ Association also signed the letter.

‘Catastrophe’

Google has countered that it benefits news publishers by sending more than eight billion visits to their websites each month in Europe alone.

“We don’t pay for links to be included in search results” because “it would undermine the trust of users”, said Richard Gingras, Google’s vice-president in charge of news, in Paris last month.

However, news publishers, including AFP, have said such links to their websites are unable to help them cope with plummeting revenues as readers migrate online from traditional media outlets.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Google will have to comply with the law, and the European Commission said it stands ready to assist member states, which must translate into domestic legislation by June 2021.

The new rule creates so-called “neighbouring rights” to ensure a form of copyright protection – and compensation – for media firms when their content is used on websites, such as search engines or social media platforms.

“Now that disinformation campaigns are infecting the internet and social networks, and independent journalism is under attack in several countries within the EU, surrendering would be a catastrophe,” said the letter.

“We call on public decision-makers to fight back.” – AFP, October 23, 2019.