By Mark Thompson

Warsaw, 23 Jan 2010

A public feast (Photo: SWS courtesy)

In recent years, media watchdogs in Poland and elsewhere – including the Open Society Media Program – have strongly criticised public service television (TV Poland) for violating basic principles of public service broadcasting. As in other countries of central and east European, successive governments and parliaments have manipulated the national broadcast network, treating it with a combination of flattering attention and cool contempt which has severely undermined program standards and public credibility. The politicised governance and management structures have impoverished the news and information output, as well as other uncommercial program strands. (For details, see the two reports on Poland in the Television across Europe project, on this website.) Despite critical statements from various quarters, there has been no sustained campaign for legal or institutional reform. Now this looks set to change. Indeed, over the past few months, not one but two distinct initiatives have emerged. One of these initiatives was unveiled in Warsaw on Saturday 23 January 2010. The organising body was an NGO, Stowarzyszenie Wolnego Słowa (SWS) (Association of the Free Word), assisted by the Friedrich Ebert and Robert Bosch Foundations, with support too from OSI. More...

Asia

Media in Southeast Asia: a spicy diet

A report on media consumption patterns by Jeremy Wagstaff

26 Jan 2010

A chilli feast (Photo: Ryan Pikkel, cc license)

No region in the world has more diverse conditions for media than Southeast Asia. With a political spectrum that straddles vibrant free markets and one-party monopolies, encompassing many business models, varieties of ownership, stages of technological development and degrees of media freedom, the region can offer a bewildering spectacle.

Lack of comparative study has made it hard to form a comprehensive picture of the region's media. To fill this gap, the Media Program commissioned analyst Jeremy Wagstaff to report on patterns of news media production and consumption across the region. The result is extraordinarily rich and readable, probably the first survey of this kind in the region. More...

Asia

Not toeing the line

Reform of broadcasting in Southeast Asia hampered by lack of political will. A report by Toby Mendel

17 Dec 2009

Southeast Asia: a mosaic (Photo: Andrew Hall, cc license)

The media systems of South-east Asia are extraordinarily diverse in terms of professional standards, economic models, political engagement, and technology. They range from Vietnam, where private media are not allowed, to Thailand, where all broadcasters are somehow public in character, to Indonesia and the Philippines, with their vibrant and commercialised broadcast sectors.

Yet these countries also have much in common; there is a regional identity, with many shared experiences and interests.

In this new report, media law analyst Toby Mendel surveys audiovisual media policy and regulation in ten countries of South-east Asia, assessing them in terms of the degree and quality of independence that they have proven capable of supporting. He concludes that "lack of real political will has stymied audiovisual media reform in all countries in the region since 2000". More...

Editor's corner

New and old moguls in the wild east

The grimmest Frankfurt Days on Media Law

By Marius Dragomir

Frankfurt (Oder), 28 Nov 2009

Johannes Weberling: Large media companies are not a guarantee for pluralism (Photo: Marius Dragomir)

Despite the innumerable opportunities created by the internet, independent journalism is declining in eastern Europe, where the media are still dominated by a small number of players who are increasingly connected with political and business interests, and more recently also with criminal groups and outlaws. While the financial crisis has badly hurt the revenues of media companies, fresh business models and innovative solutions are scarce. Media owners use their publications and broadcasters solely as weapons for political and personal gain.

These were the main conclusions from this year’s Frankfurt Days on Media Law, where journalists and lawyers gather. Journalists from the region were bitter and sarcastic: nothing can be done about the gangs of media owners who dominate their countries. Lawyers were puzzled by the blatant legal abuses. Western publishers, with a stake in eastern media markets, inveighed pathetically against their competitors, blaming red tape for their failure to change mentalities, laws and practices. All in all, a sombre atmosphere. More...

Editor's corner

Advice: stop moaning, go digital

By Marius Dragomir

Alves spoke about the changes brought about new technologies, stressing that for the first time in the history of the media, the listener / consumer / reader has become a producer, a change that many traditional media have failed or are slow in recognising and, more than that, in monetising. More...

Editor's corner

Pipes and flak: But where are the journalists?

By Marius Dragomir
London, 3 July 2009

The first comprehensive analysis on Kosovo broadcasting

The newest state (Photo: Charles Fred, under cc license)

In 1999, Kosovo was a wartorn province within the Republic of Serbia. Today, it is the world's newest independent state. The passage to statehood has been negotiated with the help of international missions, deployed in Kosovo at the end of the 1999 war.

Led by the United Nations and NATO, these missions stabilised the territory and helped to rebuild infrastructure, as well as to establish democratic institutions. One of the aims of media development activities in Kosovo has been the creation of a mixed and liberal broadcasting sector, centred on a new public service broadcaster and a range of commercial outlets.

Authored by Vjollca Krasniqi of Prishtina University, this new report by EUMAP and the Media Program provides the first comprehensive survey and analysis of the development of Kosovo's broadcasting sector since 1999. This report completes the project on Television across Europe, which has monitored regulation, policy and independence in 22 countries since 2005. All the monitoring reports are available on this site. Launch events for the Kosovo report will be announced here in the coming weeks. Click here for the full report.

EU affairs

The European Commission takes a bold step

By Mark Thompson
Brussels, 8 June 2009

Media pluralism indicators

One bold step (Courtesy European Commission)

Today saw the unveiling of a remarkable new study on media pluralism. This is a set of indicators for assessing the risks to media pluralism in member states of the European Union.

The indicators are remarkable for two reasons: they form the most refined and comprehensive instrument ever designed for the assessment of risks to media pluralism. And they were prepared at the request of the European Commission, a body that has in the past been famously reluctant to get involved with ethical or professional value-related issues of media policy. More…

Council of Europe: A new notion of media?

How much regulation do (new) media need?

Reykjavik, 28 May 2009

OSI's intervention at CoE's Conference of Ministers

Mark Thompson addressing the plenary (Photo: Marius Dragomir)

Mark Thompson, co-editor of the OSI’s Television across Europe reports, delivered the civil society response at the first session of the 1st Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Media and New Communications Services. The event, titled “A new notion of media?”, started today in Reykjavik with an address by Katrin Jakobsdóttir, Iceland’s Minister of Culture, Education and Science. Media theorist and professor, Karol Jakubowicz, gave the keynote speech, in which he spoke about the new realities in the media and communication sector.

Responding in the session on new regulations, Mr Thompson said that there is no way to start regulating the internet by applying the standards existing for traditional media.

There could be a loss of principles values and standards if we try to over-regulate, Mr Thompson said. A full transcript of his presentation can be found here.

TV across Europe

EU Observer: European broadcasters face political 'counter-reformation'

20 March 2009

 The EU Observer covers the presentation of the TV across Europe Follow-up reports in Brussels last Wednesday: 

Broadcasting across Europe, particularly in the east but also in Italy, is undergoing a "counter-reformation" - a backsliding towards overt political control after the post-Cold War period, when leaders relaxed their grip on TV and radio, warns a new report.

TV across Europe

Broadcasting: another one bites the dust

Brussels, 18 March 2009

TV across Europe international launch

TV across Europe books on their way to the launch venue (photo Marius Dragomir)

On 18 March 2009, the Open Society Foundation presented the TV across Europe follow-up report at the International Press Centre in Brussels in an event organised jointly with the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ).

Biljana Tatomir, the deputy director of OSF’s Media Program, opened the debate. Noting that 20 years have passed since the historic transformations in central and eastern Europe, she said that this anniversary is a highly suitable moment to reflect on the achievements of democratic reform.

Mark Thompson, who co-edited Television across Europe, reviewed the impact of the current economic slump on broadcasters in Western Europe. Media mergers and acquisitions fell by two-thirds in 2008. Yet even before the markets collapsed last autumn, broadcasters were losing money, due to the complex effects of the digital revolution.

Mr Thompson then presented the key findings of the TV across Europe report: fragmentation of audiences, consolidation of ownership, relaxation of licensing, redistribution (migration) of advertising, lack of ownership transparency, and the low level of public consultation on big policy issues. The most worrying trend, however, is the “repoliticisation” of public service broadcasters and of national regulators. More...

TV across Europe

"More channels, less independence": all the 2008 Follow-up Reports

London and Budapest, 26 Feb 2009

The full set of 'TV Across Europe Follow-up Reports 2008' is now available here as a single PDF file.

Television, a pillar of democracy and open societies, is changing at breakneck speed, affecting the patterns of production, transmission, consumption, marketing, financing and ownership. To take the measure of these changes and assess their impact on the independence of television – especially in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe – the Open Society Institute (OSI) has mapped the main developments in broadcasting legislation, policy and markets in nine countries: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

These countries were all included in OSI’s Television across Europe monitoring project (2005), which covered 20 countries. The new reports are sequels, measuring the progress – or lack of it – in improving the independence and pluralism of broadcasting. A regional overview defines and interprets trends across the region. Recommendations to governments, international organisations, media and regulatory bodies aim to ensure that television can play its democratic role.

The country reports were drafted by local experts with the support of partner NGOs. The overview was drafted by media experts who edited the country reports. It includes comprehensive tables of comparative data. You can now download the entire report as one file or any of the individual country reports and the overview separately. Printed copies are also available in limited numbers, and may be ordered using the EUMAP publication order form.

TV across Europe

Canary in the mine: The Guardian on the TV across Europe Follow-up Reports

17 Feb 2009

"When the cold war ended, democracy was supposed to bloom," wrote Jean Seaton for the Guardian yesterday, reviewing the TV Across Europe follow-up reports presented on this site. "but that has not happened. Political control of the crudest kind has repossessed television from the Urals to Umbria":

Freedom of thought, impartial information, wise exploration of the public condition - these notions have retreated, not advanced. Again and again, the report tells the same story: politicians capture regulators, broadcasting is commercialised and bastardised, news is puppetry, drama has all but disappeared.

"There are, however, chinks of hope," Seaton wrote: "there is a marked improvement in the independence of broadcasting in the Czech Republic, for instance." The TV across Europe report, she praised, "lets light flood into broadcasting. Its authors and sponsors ought to be congratulated, for we need to know. Like the canary in the mine, broadcasting and the other media are an early warning system for foulness in the air."

TV across Europe

Kosovo broadcast report: in the making

Prishtina and London, 16 Feb 2009

Photo: Genc B. Kastrati, used under CC license

The Kosovo Media Institute (KMI) and the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS) organised a roundtable in Prishtina to discuss the draft report on Kosovo, which will complete the series of Open Society monitoring reports on Television across Europe. Prepared by Vjollca Krasniqi, the report covers general regulation of broadcasting, public service and commercial broadcasting and looks into new technologies. The event was attended by representatives of most of the main stakeholders in Kosovo’s media, who made comments on all aspects of the draft.

The output of the public service broadcaster, RTK, was criticised for being at times “more commercial than the commercial stations themselves”. RTK was not present to respond, but it did provide written feedback on the draft. Much attention was also paid to the fate of local broadcasters that now find themselves in dire financial straits. Some participants emphasised that audience research is urgently needed if these stations, some of which air in the minority languages, are to gain access to Kosovo’s advertising spend.

Most participants agreed that one of the most urgent tasks on the media policy agenda is to secure Kosovo’s membership of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which authorised a new agreement on the redistribution of frequencies in Europe in 2006. As Kosovo was not an independent state at that time, it could not take part in that meeting. This serves to delay Kosovo’s transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. And time is of the essence: by 2012, European analogue signals will no longer be protected, according to the ITU agreement. Ms Krasniqi will revise the report, which will be published and launched in Kosovo in spring 2009.

TV across Europe

Two cheers for Czech television, one for Slovak...

Bratislava and Prague, 16 Feb 2009

Launch of Czech and Slovak TV reports

Prague Žižkov TV Tower. Photo: Fred Gosselin, used under CC license.

In a dual presentation in two cities, the Open Society Foundation's Media Program, the Open Society Institute's EUMAP and their partners launched the Television across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008 on the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 12 February in Bratislava and 13 February in Prague.

Ivan Godársky, who co-authored the Slovak report, concluded that the most important events in the media in Slovakia in recent years were the government's dramatic hostility towards the media, the steady decline of the reputation of Slovak public service television (STV), and the transition to digital broadcasting.

Eva Rybková, author of the Czech report, said that digital switchover was the most important media event in the Czech Republic in the past two years. However, even while the first digital TV stations have been licensed, the Czech broadcasting industry still lacks healthy competition. Regarding the public service broadcaster, Česká televize, Ms Rybková remarked that it has enjoyed financial stability for several years, thanks partly to a campaign to collect the licence fee more efficiently. But Czech TV is still politically influenced, with minimal involvement from civil society, even if the political interference has been less blatant than in Slovakia.

The Czech and Slovak authors also presented the results of a monitoring project they carried out in two phases in 2007 and 2008, which focused on news content on the main TV stations. More...

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