The Copyright Directive : A Qualitative Content Analysis of the Debate in the Media About the EU Copyright Directive 2016/0280(COD)

The 26th of March the European Parliament voted for the directive Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (COM/2016/0593).The directive was then voted through by the Council of Ministers on April 25th and should be implemented into each union states legislation within 24 months. The Directive came to be very controversial and heavily debated in the media, where it has been depicted as either a threat to freedom of speech or as the salvation of copyright owners. Citizens of the Union usually have poor insight in the work of EU and media are the citizens single largest link between them and the Union. What the media reports is interesting to study by the three fundamental democratic values transparency, influence, and accountability. This paper uses a qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach to examine the debate around the Copyright Directive and to highlight the most distinctive arguments and people in the debate in order to examine the results from a democratic perspective. The most striking arguments in the debate is that the basic principles of copyright must be strengthened, that opponents / advocates lacks knowledge, that the Directive contributes to censorship of the internet and a link tax, and that the big internet corporations must take responsibility. Advocates are primarily copyright owners who strive for their rights to receive an income from their work, while opponents are primarily specialists in the field or internet companies who are concerned about the implications of the directive