mediadev library

"The report provides an overview of the most recent rules, case law and policies across Europe with regard to the privileges that are given to journalists when exercising their activities. As a rule, when identifying the relevant legal aspects, three features are taken into account: the correspondin ... more

"The purpose of this publication, which has been taken care of by our partner institution IViR of the University of Amsterdam, is to provide an overview of the often disparate information concerning regional audiovisual media in Europe and to serve as a first reference point for those interested in ... exploring their legal and operational dynamics. The introductory part sets the scene for the scope of the report and presents the most recent regulatory achievements at European level. The first part of the report opens with a survey of the current national developments, highlighting those countries where governments have been particularly active in implementing reforms in recent years, touching upon funding systems, advertising and information windows, must-carry mechanisms and frequency allocation. The different national experiences have recently been assessed under the Media Pluralism Monitor promoted by the EU. The results show that none of the countries have fulfilled all of the safeguards considered by the tool. In addition, it points out that despite the availability of legislation on regional media in most countries, only a small number of them seems to have implemented it effectively. A snapshot is provided of regional and local television in Europe from a market perspective, with country by country data on public and private broadcasters from the MAVISE database of the European Audiovisual Observatory, including specific information on language channels, regional windows and studios. The second part of the report explores a selection of national case-studies. The total variety of solutions does not allow for a sensible comparative analysis, so the purpose of this selection is rather to collect the countries that show distinctive or interesting features in their regulatory approaches. The selected countries – Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom – present a canvas of possible solutions to the challenges that regional media are facing in the current times of economic crisis and digital convergence. While findability and visibility of regional media within the wide media offer that exists in all European countries is still one of the major obstacles for regional broadcasters to be known and consequently to be consumed, several examples of good practices can be traced while looking at the various national experiences." (Foreword, page 1-2) more

Journalism and Media Privilege

Regional and Local Broadcasting in Europe