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Tackling 'The Elephant Next Door'
Media Reform Coalition
DATELINE: 26/2/13
The Media Reform Coalition has published a new report on media ownership and plurality laws from across the world – in the belief that Britain has something to learn from them. The report, titled 'The Elephant Next Door: a survey of international media ownership regulations', summarises the broad international support that exists for plurality laws, and then examines regulations from across the world on national, local, foreign and cross-media holdings.
In Britain, ownership is the elephant in the room whenever media regulation is discussed. However, many other countries do impose strong controls on the media market, and are not afraid to limit ownership where they feel that existing media rules alone will not ensure a sufficient plurality of voices. Our reports include findings such as:
• France, Australia and Canada all restrict ownership at the national and local level.
• Germany measures market share from different types of media and applies a complicated system of weightings to determine overall cross-media holdings.
• Denmark places strict stipulations on the boards and corporate management of local broadcast companies.
• The USA applies a complex 'sliding scale' of thresholds for radio ownership across regional markets.
Most regulations take the form of hard limits on market share or reach, with governments blocking mergers and acquisitions that threaten to breach these limits. Others use benchmarks and similar mechanisms to trigger discretionary reviews by regulatory authorities.
The report also identifies a tentative trend of liberalisation, especially in Europe. For example:
• Spain has progressively revised its national ownership rules by means of controversial royal decrees.
• The Netherlands has eliminated cross-media ownership controls beyond ordinary competition law.
• In Australia, limits on foreign ownership have been relaxed, and the government's veto criteria softened.
• In the USA, regulators skirmish with the courts over the correct form for cross-media regulation.
This is a decisive time for the future of media regulation in the United Kingdom. The Leveson Report has highlighted the major role that tighter ownership rules could play in reforming the press. Our report suggests that tried-and-tested mechanisms used abroad can provide inspiration for the policies we need here in Britain – policies that will secure the plurality of media necessary in a healthy democracy.
Read the report The Elephant Next Door at: http://www.mediareform.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/The-Elephant-Next-Door.pdf
Last modified: Tuesday, February 26, 2013
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
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