European Union competencies in respect of media pluralism and media freedom (original) (raw)
Related papers
Klimkiewicz (2009) made this reference to the plurality and diversity, discussed also by Miguel, while looking at the UK White Paper 'A new Future for Communication' for diversity: "the range of different programmes and services available to viewers and listeners" and at the Department of Trade and Industry (2000) for plurality "the choices viewers and listeners are offered between different providers of such services". Therefore, plurality adds to the values of diversity and look at similar services and the differences in contents between them. Arriving at the characteristics of pluralism Freedman (2008) considered the most important normative characteristics of pluralism to be the accountability, impartiality and autonomy, with the same goal of combating individual characteristics and incorporating views of multiple stakeholders. Again the author emphasizes the need for more voices to be implicated and heard in the media processes, since this action leads to the freedom of expression. This can be done trough a limitation of state intervention especially in the content regulation, with the exception of the moment when regulation is needed for child protection in advertising and invasion of privacy. Furthermore, Cavallin named as the main property of pluralism the "independence, of different groups and views expressed by groups (persons, etc.) in society" (2000, p. 127). In order to ensure the independence mentioned above, media can contribute, according to the author, in three ways: "by reflecting existing pluralism and diversities or differences in society, by offering space to diverse opinions in society, by offering to the audience (general public, users) a diverse supply" (Cavallin, 2000, p. 125). A society where media ensures all these conditions is a pluralistic society. Cavallin's conditions enlisted above will be followed later by Doyle (2002), which will look at the 16 Interview conducted in Brussels with the Head of the European affairs, Ms. Nicola Frank, 07.05.2012. 17 Reference retrieved 9.12.2012 from http://epceurope.eu/about/our-members/. CHAPTER III. TOWARDS A SOFT-REGULATORY APPROACH-THE MEDIA GOVERNANCE SYSTEM This chapter introduces the concept of Media Governance as a tool of analysis of the European audiovisual media policy. The concept of governance is analyzed in the next sub-chapter, as an introduction to the one of soft-governance. Media governance study includes the different views and theoretical contributions brought by different media researchers and school of thoughts. These analyses are made in a chronological way starting with the characteristics discussed in the literature, the definitions and the critiques brought along with the concept. Lastly, this chapter will look at the potential of soft-governance for media governance, how it can be used and applied in order to provide a better setting for the protection of media pluralism. COUNCIL OF EUROPE. (CoE). (1999). Recommendation No. R (99) 1 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on measures to promote media pluralism. Strasburg: Council of Europe. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (CoE). Recommendation No. R (99) 1 of the Committee of Ministers on measures to promote media pluralism in the digital environment.S trasbourg: Council of Europe. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (CoE) (2000): Recommendation Rec (2000) 23 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the Independence and Functions of Regulatory Authorities for the Broadcasting Sector. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (CoE) (2002): Media Diversity in Europe. Report prepared by the AP-MD (Advisory Panel to the CDMM on media concentrations, pluralism and diversity questions). H/APMD (2003) 001. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (CoE) (2003): Recommendation Rec (2003)9 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on Measures to Promote the Democratic and Social Contribution of Digital Broadcasting. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (CoE) (2005): European Commission for democracy through law (Venice Commission). Opinion no. 309/2004. CDL(2005)009rev. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (CoE) (2007a): Recommendation Rec (2007) 2 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on media pluralism and diversity of media content. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (CoE) (2007b): Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on protecting the role of the media in democracy in the context of media concentration. Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 31 January 2007 at the 985th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
Media freedom and pluralism: legislation and enforcement at the European level
Media freedom and pluralism: legislation and enforcement at the European level, 2018
This paper attempts to put European media freedom and pluralism into the context of European legislation and law-enforcement. It analyses how the European Convention on Human Rights can protect media freedom and pluralism, and whether and how the European Union has the obligation and the competence to do so. It argues that protecting media pluralism in Europe is an even more urgent need than reacting to individual violations of freedom of expression, because structural distortions to media markets have reached a level constituting a deficiency in European democratic processes. The legal insecurity around social network sites increases the extent of the crisis: which involves the failure of the media’s functioning as the watchdog of the governments. The final publication is available at link.springer.com.
Evolving regulation for media freedom and pluralism in the European Union
Utilities Policy, 2014
European regulation of the media is limited to audioevisual media services and is influenced by the economic regulation of electronic communications, and of e-commerce, that have a close scope of application. However, media regulation has one peculiar differentiating characteristic: it cannot concentrate only on market competition, as the rest of modern economic regulation does, but has to pursue other fundamental values. In particular, media pluralism and media freedom emerge as policy goals that are essential for democracy and human rights in Europe. In this paper, we discuss the EU's search for a point of equilibrium within resistance from member states to relinquishing power in the sector; we describe the current debate, and suggest some possible directions for development.
This study was commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee. The authors argue that democratic processes in several EU countries are suffering from systemic failure, with the result that the basic conditions of media pluralism are not present, and, at the same time, that the distortion in media pluralism is hampering the proper functioning of democracy. The study offers a new approach to strengthening media freedom and pluralism, bearing in mind the different political and social systems of the Member States. The authors propose concrete, enforceable and systematic actions to correct the deficiencies found.
2017
The CMPF cooperated with experienced, independent national researchers to carry out the data collection and to author the narrative reports, except in the cases of Malta and Italy where data collection was carried out centrally by the CMPF team. The research was based on a standardised questionnaire and apposite guidelines that were developed by the CMPF. The data collection was carried out between May and October 2016. In Belgium, the CMPF partnered with KU Leuven's Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP), who conducted the data collection, commented the variables in the questionnaire and interviewed relevant experts. The report was reviewed by CMPF staff. Moreover, to ensure accurate and reliable findings, a group of national experts in each country reviewed the answers to particularly evaluative questions (see Annexe 2 for the list of experts). Risks to media pluralism are examined in four main thematic areas, which represent the main areas of risk for media pluralism and media freedom: Basic Protection, Market Plurality, Political Independence and Social Inclusiveness. The results are based on the assessment of 20 indicators-five per each thematic area: