It's not like the new law says governments must spy on journalists; it just doesn't try hard enough to protect them. That's like saying that because the US is utterly failing to ensure privacy of communications over the internet, it's a "totalitarian construct".
The truth is that, sometimes, in a democracy there just isn't enough political capital out there to pass a law that looks "obviously" right.
The two most prominent EU member states amended the law specifically to remove the prohibitions on states spying on journalists. So this is still newsworthy.
Absolutely. But it's ludicrous for people to say this means the EU is becoming "totalitarian". This is how we cheapen words, like we used to do with "Nazi" before Godwin's Law saved us from the worst of it.
The truth is that, sometimes, in a democracy there just isn't enough political capital out there to pass a law that looks "obviously" right.