2' EUROPEAN MEDIA POLICIES: TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA SPACE AND BEYOND

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2. EUROPEAN MEDIA POLICIES TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA
SPACE AND BEYOND

• Dr Beata Klimkiewicz
• Jagiellonian University
• Kraków, Poland

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• Individual liberty can be only a product of
  collective work (can be only collectively secured
  or guaranteed).
•  
• Zygmunt Bauman, In Search of Politics

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TWO INSTITUTIONS

• COUNCIL OF EUROPE
• EUROPEAN UNION

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ARTICLE 10 OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN
RIGHTS

• Everyone has the right to freedom of expression.
  This right shall include freedom to hold opinions
  and to receive and impart information and ideas
  without interference by public authority and
  regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not
  prevent States from requiring the licensing of
  broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.

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LIMITATIONS

• the interests of national security
• territorial integrity or public safety
• the prevention of disorder or crime
• the protection of the reputation or rights of
  others

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TWO APPROACHES

• print sector voluntarism and private initiative
  with the role of national governments limited to
  marginal issues.
•  
• sector of broadcasting strong regulation of
  access and content, a notion of public service
  (in socio-political terms) and pressure towards
  universal provision.

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EU CONSTITUTION

• Article II 71 of the EU Treaty establishing a
  Constitution for Europe
• The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be
  respected
• the role of media diversity and pluralism in a
  democratic European societies

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THREE PHASES OF EU MEDIA POLICY

• audiovisual policy (TWF Directive)
• competition policy (merger regulation)
• information society policy (the package of
  directives for new media and communications).

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EUROPEAN MEDIA SPACE AS A POLITICAL CONSTRUCT

• Information is a decisive, perhaps the only
  decisive factor in European unification...European
  unification will only be achieved if Europeans
  want it. Europeans will only want it if there is
  such a thing as European identity. A European
  identity will only develop if Europeans are
  adequately informed. At present, information via
  the mass media is controlled at national level.
• (Commission of the European Communities, 1984)

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PROTECTION AGAINST US IMPORTS

• Wim Wenders
• Europe will become a Third World continent
  because we will not have anything to say on the
  most important mediumThere is a war going on and
  the Americans have been planning it for a long
  time. The most powerful tools are images and
  sound.

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TWF DIRECTIVE

• 1989 the European Community adopted Directive
  89/552/EEC, commonly referred to as the
  Television Without Frontiers Directive
• it sought to build up Europes television
  industry through removing national barriers to
  cross-border broadcasting and promoting
  investment in European and independently produced
  programmes
• greater opportunities for European audiovisual
  production in a global market

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EUROPEAN QUOTA

• Article 4
• Member States shall ensure where practicable
  and by appropriate means, that broadcasters
  reserve for European works. a majority
  proportion of their transmission time
• broadcasters are required to transmit at least
  ten per cent independently produced programmes
• the trade deficit with the US for television
  rights was running at around 4.1 billion euros in
  2000

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ADVERTISING STANDARDS

• almost each MS country has designed different
  measures in this matter,
• advertising rules are laid down in the TWF
  Directive to protect consumers as well as
  producers
• many issues remain problematic

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RECOGNITION OF ADVERTISING

• Article 10 of the TWF Directive requires
• television advertising to be readily
  recognizable () and kept quite separate from
  other parts of the programme service by optical
  or/and acoustic means.
• no comparable restrictions on the film industry

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PROTECTION OF MINORS AND PREVENTION OF HATE SPEECH

• provisions designed to protect children
• to prevent broadcasts which incite racial or
  religious hatred
• it also calls on Member States to provide a right
  of reply for those individuals whose reputation
  has been damaged by an assertion of incorrect
  facts

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THE FIRST REVIEW OF THE TWF DIRECTIVE 1997

• to clarify certain of its articles which had
  proved problematic, in particular those relating
  to state jurisdiction and child protection
• to reserve for free to air broadcasting coverage
  of those events which they deem to be of MAJOR
  NATIONAL IMPORTANCE 
• to include teletext and teleshopping in the
  provisions relating to advertising
• the 1997 amendments did not fundamentally alter
  the basic principles established in the original
  Directive

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THE SECOND REVIEW ONGOING

• more far-reaching - new technological
  capabilities and changing consumer expectations
• PERSONALISATION it will prompt advertisers to
  look for alternative promotional opportunities,
  such as split-screen advertising, virtual
  advertising or product placement
• INTERACTIVITY - change the way in which viewers
  interact with broadcast services, and a rapid
  move between television programmes and on-demand
  information or commercial communications

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PROTECTION OF MEDIA PLURALISM/LIMITS ON MEDIA
OWNERSHIP AND CONCENTRATION

• protection of media pluralism has been primarily
  perceived as a legitimate goal of national media
  policies
• a majority of European countries have enshrined
  weaker or stronger domestic policy measures to
  safeguard or promote media pluralism

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1992 GREEN PAPER

• 1992 a Green Paper Pluralism and Media
  Concentration in the Internal Market
• to assess the need for Community action on the
  question of concentration in the media
  (television, radio, press)
• to evaluate different approaches to be
  potentially adopted by the Commission after
  consultation of the parties concerned

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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTS PROPOSAL

• Resolution on Media Concentration and Diversity
  of Opinions (1992)
• the drafting of a charter for European
  non-profit-making broadcasting organisations
• a proposal for effective measures to combat or
  restrict concentration in the media
• the protection and safeguarding of Europes
  cultural heritage and cultural output
• the regulation of short reporting on events of
  general interest
• a Commission proposal for a European framework
  Directive safeguarding journalistic and editorial
  independence in all media
• the formulation of a Media Code designed to
  maintain professional ethics
• the establishment of an independent European
  Media Council

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THE SECOND ROUND OF CONSULTATIONS

• circulation of a discussion paper prepared by DG
  Internal Market, proposing a possible 1996 draft
  directive on media pluralism
• the documents focus modified from
  Concentrations and Pluralism to Media
  Ownership in the Internal Market
• towards removing obstacles to the Internal Market
  
• EP Resolution on the risks of violation, in the
  EU and especially in Italy, of freedom of
  expression and information (2004)

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MERGER REGULATION

• 2004 Merger Regulation, replacing the 1989 Merger
  Regulation aims at protection of effective
  competition
• only Member States may take appropriate measures
  to protect public security, plurality of the
  media and prudential rules.

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COUNCIL OF EUROPES RECOMMENDATIONS

• Recommendation no. R (94) 13 of the Committee of
  Ministers to Member States on Measures to promote
  Media Transparency
• Recommendation no. R (96) 10 of the Committee of
  Ministers to Member States on the Guarantee of
  the Independence of Public Service Broadcasting
• Recommendation No. R (99) 1 of the Committee of
  Ministers to MS on Measures to promote Media
  Pluralism
• Recommendation Rec (2003) 9 of the Committee of
  Ministers to MS on Measures to promote the
  Democratic and Social Contribution of Digital
  Broadcasting

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MEDIA DIVERSITY IN EUROPE

• companies enter alliances and dissolve them at
  great speed
• the number of mergers and collaboration
  agreements is significantly increasing
• the growth of media companies across national
  borders has primarily taken place within specific
  areas
• several groups in media sector have very
  difficult financial situation
• the significant losses in share values of media
  companies in the wake of bursting of the IT
  economy bubble
• involvement of telecommunication companies in
  developing new media services
• the crisis in advertising revenues, which is
  becoming a factor of concentration

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COUNCIL OF EUROPES APPROACH

• audience share approach is a widely used model -
  the advantage of reflecting the real influence of
  a broadcaster in a given market
• neutral on the number of licences which the
  broadcaster can hold
• it also allows an international development
• permissible thresholds vary at around 1/3 of
  audience, 1/3 of revenues

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CONVERGENCE/NEW TECHGNOLOGIES

• Directive 2002/19/EC (Access Directive)
• Directive 2002/ 20/EC (Authorisation Directive)
• Directive 2002/21/EC (Framework Directive)
• Directive 2002/22/EC (Universal Service
  Directive)
• Directive 2002/58/EC (Directive on Privacy and
  Electronic Communications)

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CONCLUSIONS

• to form a common European media space and protect
  this by supporting European dominant media
  players.
• there is an intention to nurture pluralism and
  diversity within this media space
• at the national level a similar media policy
  dilemma