Broadcasting: another one bites the dust

OSI squad (from left to right): Andrzej Krajewski, Biljana Tatomir, Mark Thompson and Marius Dragomir (photo Marc Gruber)

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. He 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.

Marius Dragomir, the report’s other co-editor, described the situation of public service broadcasting in central and eastern Europe as “catastrophic”. Most of these stations have seen their ratings fall dramatically, with younger viewers leading the exodus. “Over the past three years, the financial health of these stations worsened, with many of them now on the brink of bankruptcy,” Mr Dragomir said. Despite this dramatic downturn, there is no major initiative or plan to rescue these stations. Paradoxically, instead of seeking models of saving these stations, governments in the region are preoccupied with maintaining a tight grip on them by appointing their cronies to the stations’ governing structures. Slovak STV, for example, has had 13 directors in 13 years although the director’s mandate is five years.

Andrzej Krajewski, author of the Polish chapter, said that the crisis at Polish TV started years before the current financial crunch. He criticised the politicisation of Polish TVP, reviewing the appointments at TVP, which are continually made on a political basis. “TVP needs a professional management, not political management,” Mr Krajewski said. According to laws now under discussion in parliament, the government will scrap the licence fee and replace it with money from the state budget, administered through a new Public Media Fund, of which 10 per cent will be reserved to support public service programming by commercial broadcasters. “The licence fee was a joke: only 40 per cent of households were paying, and 5 per cent of businesses. From 2010 the licence fee will be replaced by financing from the budget at the 2007 level of licence fee payments.” Although TVP is likely to survive, it will almost certainly lose the strong position that it has enjoyed.

Biljana Tatomir and Eva Rybková (right)

Eva Rybková, author of the Czech chapter, said that the channels which are hardest hit by the financial crisis are the young digital channels which started to operate last year. Česká televize (ČT), is an exception among public service broadcasters in the region; for it has enjoyed a balanced budget for more than five years, thanks to an aggressive campaign to collect the licence fee. However, ČT still suffers from a deficit of political independence. Its supervisory council is filled with political nominees and has been weak in defending the independence of the station.

Aidan White, general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), praised the report as “a fantastic piece of work. Anyone reading this will see there is a profound crisis in public service broadcasting.” If the recommendations of the original TV across Europe report (2005) had been acted on, “we wouldn’t be here ringing the alarm bell again”. The worry today is that quality television will disappear because it is being starved of wise public investment. This would be a huge loss for European culture. Yet it would be a mistake to believe that the structure and architecture of public service broadcasting, as we have known it, are immutable. What matters is to preserve and strengthen public service values. Mr White then introduced the Ethical Journalism Initiative (EJI) of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which he described as “a back-to-basics campaign” to “rekindle old values in media worldwide”. The EJI aims to restore ethical standards at the heart of journalism, where they belong.

During the Q&A session that followed, speakers and audience agreed that the way media affairs are divided among several directorates-general at the European Commission makes it more difficult to produce coherent, effective policy. According to Mr White, the European Union “flies the flag for PSB, but when tough questions are asked, it says there is a problem of competence: ‘subsidiarity’ means media policy is national.” The election of a new European Parliament and appointment of a new European Commission later this year offer an opportunity, Mr White said. The new Parliament should come forward with an initiative for “a new European strategy for the media”.