Dr. Helga Schwarzwald is part of the panel of experts regarding the Austrian Media Pluralism Monitor. The Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) is a tool that has been developed by the Florence based Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom to assess the risks for media pluralism in a given country. Prior to the 2016 implementation, the tool has been tested under two pilot-projects co-funded by the European Union in 2014 and 2015. The Monitor assesses the risks for media pluralism based on a set of twenty indicators covering four different areas: Basic Protection, Market Plurality, Political Independence and Social Inclusiveness. The indicators cover legal, economic and socio-political questions. The MPM covers a broad notion of media pluralism that encompasses political, cultural, geographical, structural and content related dimensions.
All types of media are covered: public service, commercial and community media.
National experts, composing the MPM network of local teams, provide the data to assess the levels of risk at country level, draft the country reports, while the CMPF supervises and guarantees quality and consistency of the data collection and assesses the levels of risk.