Television across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008

Update: Media policy, Television across Europe: new monitoring reports, new website

EUMAP and the Network Media Program (NMP) of the Open Society Foundation are launching a new website: mediapolicy.org. This site will host all the Television across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008. Available now are seven new monitoring reports, covering Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland and Romania, while reports covering two more countries are forthcoming. Read the announcement or go straight to www.mediapolicy.org.

Launch of a new monitoring project: 'TV Across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008'

EUMAP is pleased to announce a new monitoring project, to be carried out in collaboration with the Open Society Institute Network Media Program (NMP).

This monitoring follows up on the completed EUMAP/NMP reports on TV Across Europe: regulation, policy and independence. The original set of reports (covering 20 countries) was released from October 2005 on. The reports have become a reference in many countries; they are widely used in universities and by policy makers.

The original TV Across Europe project ended in June 2006, following a successful conference held in Budapest. Since then, the Network Media Program has funded a number of followup projects, carried out by partner organisations in selected countries, aimed at promoting (and building on) the reports’ findings and conclusions.

One of the main recommendations from the conference was that a short followup monitoring be carried out, to update the reports and keep the findings and recommendations in the public eye. Since the launch of the reports, there have been very significant developments in many of the countries, with respect to many of the areas monitored.

Implementing this recommendation, the TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008 monitoring project was launched in London in March 2007, following a meeting with all the reporting teams to discuss and finalise the reporting methodology.

Country coverage

The TV across Europe 2 monitoring includes 9 of the 20 countries included in the original monitoring, namely:

Albania; Bulgaria; the Czech Republic; Italy; Lithuania; Poland; the Republic of Macedonia; Romania; and Slovakia.

These countries were selected because there have been significant changes in the broadcasting landscape that merit followup monitoring.

Reporting methodology

The methodology project covers all the main 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: Digital broadcasting across Europe: regulation, policy and the pubic interest. Further details will be announced in the coming months).

In addition, the reporting methodology of the TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008 focuses exclusively on television broadcasting and does not cover radio broadcasting.

• TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008, Report Methodology – Country Report structure

Output

The monitoring will result in a short update report (approximately 15 pages) on each of the nine countries included in the monitoring, which will be published online. These will be available from April 2008 onwards. In addition, an updated overview report will also be prepared, to be available in mid-2008.

For further information on this project please contact Marius Dragomir (Marius.Dragomir AT osf-eu.org) or Miriam Anati (manati AT osieurope.org).