Information Society and Media
6. Media pluralism and press freedom
Commissioner Viviane Reding says freedom of opinion, freedom of media and media pluralism are among the most important goals of deregulation and enhanced competition. The European Union is committed to protecting media pluralism as an essential pillar of the right to information and freedom of expression.
Safeguarding media pluralism can be seen to include all measures that ensure citizens' access to a variety of information sources, opinions, voices, etc. in order to form their opinion without the undue influence of one dominant opinion-forming power. Globalisation, media concentration, cross-ownership and special media circumstances in Central and Eastern Europe are important issues in the media pluralism debate.
The audiovisual sector directly employs over one million people in the European Union. In addition to its economic importance, the sector plays a key social and cultural role. According to the Commission, television is the most important source of information and entertainment in European societies, with 98 percent of homes having a television. The average European watches more than 200 minutes television per day.
The EU’s landmark piece of audiovisual legislation is the Television without Frontiers (TWF) directive, which set the conditions for the transmission of television broadcasts within the European single market. The directive dates from 1989 and was revised in 1997. It set minimum standards for free movement of TV programmes, safeguards for programmes originating from Europe and for public interest objectives such as cultural diversity, limits to the volume of advertising and measures to protect younger audiences.
In December 2005, the European Commission proposed another revision of the Television without Frontiers directive. In the spring of 2007, both the European Parliament and the Council agreed to the need to modernise the rules governing the audiovisual services industry. Political agreement was reached on the new Audiovisual Media Services without Frontiers Directive in May, 2007.
The new Audiovisual Media Services directive aims to respond to technological developments and create a new, level playing field in Europe for emerging audiovisual media services, with the modernised rules covering all audiovisual media services, regardless of the transmission technology used (video-on-demand, mobile TV, audiovisual services on digital TV, and other TV-like services).
The new directive allows the audiovisual sector to confront the profound changes it faces in accommodating technological and market developments and changing viewing habits resulting from convergence. It also adds flexibility in the timing and scope of advertising spots on TV and in strictly defined cases allows indirect advertising through product placement in made-for-TV productions. TV audiences must be clearly informed on any product placement, at the beginning and the end of a TV broadcast. No product placement may take place in news, current affairs and children programmes. Member states may introduce stricter rules, but for broadcasters from abroad, a country-of-origin principle applies.
In addition to the EUs audiovisual legislation, the role of public service broadcasting was reinforced by a protocol attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam, which took effect in 1999. It confirmed the importance governments attach to public broadcasting because of its role in underpinning the democratic, social and cultural needs of each society and in safeguarding plurality in the face of the trend towards media concentration. Each member state is free to define the structure of its public broadcasting service (PBS) and organise its tasks in a way that serves the general interest. It can also support the PBS financially, providing that normal commercial operations or competition among broadcasters are not distorted.
MEDIA 2007
The MEDIA programme is the second cornerstone of the EU’s audiovisual policy. Its purpose is to provide financial support to expand Europe’s output of quality films and TV programmes, to increase their circulation in Europe and beyond and to make the local industry more competitive internationally.
MEDIA programmes started in 1990. The current one runs from 2007 until 2013 with a total budget of 755 million for this period. Like its predecessors, it will focus on the production, distribution and promotion of films and other audiovisual works. It also takes into consideration the consequences of the digital revolution for the audiovisual sector and the enlargement of the EU from 25 to 27 members. It will:
- take account of the creative process of the audiovisual sector and of its important cultural heritage and value;
- strengthen the production structures of small businesses to make the European audiovisual sector more competitive;
- reduce the imbalance in audiovisual output between the EU countries, by raising the level of countries with low output or with a small linguistic area as part of the EUs cultural diversity;
- provide support for digitisation throughout the production and distribution chain, including training for professionals in the sector.
Further news and information for journalists can be found at the Newsroom of Europe’s Information Society Thematic Portal . The most important activities and policies of the Information Society and Media DG are also listed in the Essential Reading section of the same portal.
The future of media freedom
Europe still has problems with media pluralism and press freedom, despite occupying 18 of the top 20 positions in press freedom rankings. In early 2009, the Czech government passed a new muzzling law that criminalises the publication of material based on police wiretaps. For example, journalists face five years in prison for exposing high level corruption, if the information was gathered with police bugs.
The Italian government has proposed similar measures. At national level, Italy is well known for its lack of media pluralism and partisan press. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns the main private TV broadcaster Mediaset and has considerable leverage over the public broadcaster Rai. In the Reporters Without Borders press freedom rankings 2008, Italy came 44th, Poland 47th, and Bulgaria 59th.
In June 2009, Commissioner Reding joined the chief editor of Stern magazine to celebrate the launch of the European charter on press freedom. Although not legally binding, it is intended to be made a condition of entry for EU candidate countries in future accession negotiations, according to EU Observer.
Quick-jump to other chapters in this dossier :
Chapters
- 1. Information Revolution
- 2. Regulation, research, promotion
- 3. i2010 Initiative
- 4. Reform of the telecom rules
- 5. Roaming regulation
- 6. Media pluralism and press freedom
- 7. Key policy makers and contacts
