Raging At And For Ownership Rules

Michael Hedges March 25, 2013 - Follow on Twitter

Long accepted economic theory holds that actors in specific market sectors seek to consolidate, as those sectors mature, in search of economies of scale. Consolidation is self-limiting, though, because monopolies are inefficient. The media sector, it’s often argued, is different, not like airlines, oil, banks or pizzas.

The European Commission (EC) is asking for public comments on the effect of media concentration on media freedom and pluralism. This follows recommendations from experts appointed by EC Vice President Neelie Kroes – the High Level Group (HLG) – returned in January and the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee resolution passed in February.

The media sector is special because access to information it prints, distributes and transmits is the necessary glue holding together democratic thought and process, without which chaos would ensue. A highly concentrated media sector, as ownership consolidates, could limit diversity of information, which can easily be abused. The HLG reported that “excessive influence of media owners or advertising clients on politicians and government and the covert manipulation of political decisions in favor of hidden economic interests.”  And it further damned the “concentration of ownership of commercial media and the influence this might have in the political space” and “concentration of all media in the hands of foreign owners” or “within the hands of a single owner” or “in the hands of ruling politicians.” Hence, there needs to be a law, preferably enshrined by the EU because of the bad things done in the UK (Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation), Italy (Silvio Berlusconi) and Hungary (Viktor Orban).

Last week the three main political parties in the UK struggled to forge consensus around regulating newspapers and, awkwardly, news websites without mentioning the elephant in the room, media ownership. About half the UK publishers rounded on the rather light-touch plan for an independent regulator and refused, at first blush, to participate. Mr. Murdoch, through the Sun (UK) tabloid, signaled displeasure with the press regulator plan and with Prime Minister David Cameron, specifically, in several flowery headlines giving editorial deference to far-right Ukip party leader Nigel Farage, whose mission is to remove the UK from the European Union. Even after News Corporation splits into two companies, EU rule making on media ownership would have a significant effect, not to forget letting national governments off the hook.

“Media issues are not limited to one member state,” observed Commissioner Kroes to a Dublin conference on media pluralism (March 21), quoted by the Irish Independent. “There are concerns and intense debates in places across the EU. From concerns about excessive concentration of media ownership and lack of transparency in Bulgaria; to the UK Leveson Inquiry on the press, where the rights and responsibilities of journalists to abide by the law were tested and found severely wanting in many instances. The scale and the issues are not always the same, but this is a debate that rages across the union.”

“The solution may lie in action from the EU or Member States, from the sector itself, or from a mix,” she admitted. “But whatever the answer, I am clear that freedom of speech is a fundamental EU value, and the EU has a duty to ensure it is safeguarded.”

“If media is fettered, either by the interests of owners, by fear of authority or by simple groupthink, then our democracy is worse off,” said Irish Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte at the same conference. “The rise of social media and the advent of highly flexible and tailored internet-based advertising threaten the basic advertising income of all media, national and local, print and broadcast. Accepted scales of operation, for a newspaper, a television station, or for a radio station, are being rendered redundant by the emergence of a vast crop of new, small and infinitely flexible media players, on the one hand, and by the slow growth of a small number of supra national media operators, on the other, often characterized by cross-media ownership.”

The tandem public consultations of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and the independence of media regulators extend through mid-June.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Media Laws – New and Revised

Policy makers and politicians are writing and rewiting media laws and rules at a breakneck pace. As broadcasters and publishers grapple with changes brought about by digital development, new business models and financial distress, the new media is feeling rules tightening around it. From licensing and public broadcasting to privacy, piracy and copyright this ftm Knowledge file Media Laws – New and Revised summarizes new laws and revised laws from a media perspective. 135 pages PDF (December 2010)

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Press/Media Freedom - Challenges and Concerns

Press and media freedom worldwide is facing challenges from many corners. As authoritarian leaders impose strict control over traditional and new media with impunity, media watchers have concerns for democracy. This ftm Knowledge file accounts the troubles of this difficult decade. 88 pages. PDF (December 2011)

Order here