Media Policy

Media policy, Television across Europe: new website, new monitoring reports (Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland and Romania)
EUMAP and NMP present a new website: mediapolicy.org. Available there are seven new monitoring reports: TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008

NMP 'Television across Europe' followup projects
Follow-up action on Television across Europe report in full swing

Television across Europe: Regulation, Policy and Independence (2005)
International overview and all country reports and translations; plus press releases and media coverage

See also: Reports, press releases and additional info grouped together by country.

EUMAP monitoring in this area is carried out in cooperation with the Network Media Program of the Open Society Institute.

Monitoring television regulation, policy and independence

In 2005, the Open Society Institute produced the series of monitoring reports TV across Europe: Regulation, policy and independence. The reports focus on both public service broadcasting and commercial television. At 1,662 pages, the complete three-volume set of reports is the largest ever comparative survey of its kind. It consists of 20 country reports plus an overview report, which resumes the main findings across all the countries monitored.

The 20 country reports were drafted by local experts with the support of partner NGOs. All country reports are based on the same methodology, thus allowing for a comparative analysis. In each country the monitoring assesses media policy and regulations established in particular to secure the political and economic independence of television across Europe. The following 20 European countries, combining EU members, candidate and potential candidate countries, were included in the monitoring:

Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; the Czech Republic; Estonia; France; Germany; Hungary; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; the Republic of Macedonia; Romania; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia, Turkey; and the United Kingdom.

The overview report was drafted by media experts who also edited the single country reports. It includes a comprehensive annex section, with tables of comparative data.

The country reports and the overview report include concrete recommendations to governments, international organisations and regulatory bodies aimed at ensuring that television can play its democratic role.

The complete three-volume report and a one-volume summary report are published in English. But each country report is also published in the language or languages of the country, accompanied by a translation of the regional overview.

Read a summary of the main regional findings and recommendations

'TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008'

To refresh the findings of the original set of monitoring reports, the Open Society Institute launched a followup monitoring project in April 2007, TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008 . This project will result in the publication, from April 2008 onwards, of short followup reports on a selection of the original 20 monitored countries. They will cover countries where there have been significant developments since the release of the original set of reports.

Read more..

The TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008 monitoring project will cover all the areas included in the original reporting methodology, with the exception of the section on new technologies. Given the fast pace of change in this area, a separate monitoring project will be initiated looking specifically at digitalisation.

Further information on this project

The full text of the reports on Television across Europe: Regulation, Policy and Independence are available on this site, as are the methodology texts, the list of local experts who conducted the monitoring and the NGOs who supported them, the press releases that were issued, a selection of international media coverage of the reports and their findings, and a selection of recommended resources. They are all listed in the Media Policy menu on the right. You can also request copies of the reports by using the Publication order form.

For further information please contact Marius Dragomir (mdragomir AT osieurope.org) or Miriam Anati (manati AT osieurope.org).

If you are interested in being informed about future follow-up activities, please subscribe to the eumap.org Infolist