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Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: a Documentary Reader University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Other Publications from the Center for Global Center for Global Communication Studies Communication Studies (CGCS) 11-2011 Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: A Documentary Reader Monroe Price University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Marc Raboy Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications Part of the Broadcast and Video Studies Commons Recommended Citation Price, Monroe and Raboy, Marc. (2011). Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: A Documentary Reader. Other Publications from the Center for Global Communication Studies. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/1 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/1 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: A Documentary Reader Abstract This is a book of documents, comments, and cases that has been prepared, at the request of the European Institute for the Media, for the use of government officials and citizens interested in strengthening public service broadcasting in transition societies. In this book we try to provide a small chest of tools and background information that will be of assistance. We start, in Chapter 1, with an overview of some of the general principles of public service broadcasting, and include pertinent comments on each of them. Here, as throughout the book, we concentrate on issues of governance and financing, with some attention as well ot issues surrounding programming. In Chapter 2, we turn to current issues in the European-level debate, partly from the perspective of European expectations and standards that are employed in evaluation and accession processes. In Chapter 3, we look primarily at the UK and Germany, and also at Canada, presenting documents that might illuminate and help in the understanding of the respective models that these long- established systems represent. In Chapter 4, we provide documents on the experience with public service broadcasting in various transformations in transition societies in the last decades. Disciplines Broadcast and Video Studies | Communication Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License. This report is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/1 European Union PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TRANSITION: A Documentary Reader _______________________________ ______ Commissioned by Compiled by Published November 2001 Enquiries concerning reproduction should be sent to European Commission, EuropeAid Cooperation Office, European Initiative Democracy and Human Rights, Rue de la Loi 200, B-1040 Brussels This report has been prepared by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy for the European Institute for the Media. It is published with financial assistance from the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government of Germany. It was co-financed by the European Union. The findings, conclusions and interpretations expressed in this document are those of the European Institute for the Media alone and should in no way be taken to reflect the policies or opinions of the European Union. ii PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TRANSITION: A DOCUMENTARY READER Edited by Monroe E. Price Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford and Marc Raboy Department of Communication, University of Montreal SEPTEMBER 1, 2001 iv Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: A Documentary Reader TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ………………………………………………..1 Chapter I ………………………………………………..4 I. 1 General Principles……………………………….5 I. 2 Financing…………………………………………8 I. 3 Program Content……………………………….20 I. 4 Objectivity and Impartiality…………………….24 I. 5 Structure and Autonomy………………………27 I. 7 Technology and the Future……………………36 I. 8 Concluding Overview…………………………..39 CHAPTER II ………………………………………………43 II. 1 The Treaty of Amsterdam and the Validation of Public Service Broadcasting………………………44 II. 2 Funding: Treaty of Rome, Competition and Transparency………………………………………..47 II. 3 Accession and Evaluation…………………….57 II.4 Public Service Broadcasting in a Digital Age.70 II.5 Concluding Overview…………………………..83 Chapter III ………………………………………………87 III. 1 Purposes of Public Service Broadcasting…89 i III. 2 Program Content……..……………………….95 III. 3 Structure and Independence……………….101 III. 4 Public Service Broadcasting and Public Service Obligations of Private Broadcasters…...107 III. 5 The Example of Canada……………………117 Chapter IV …………………………………………….127 IV. 1 What Prospects for Public Service Broadcasting in Central and Eastern Europe….129 IV. 4 “Media Wars”………………………………..145 IV. 5 Country Studies: Poland and Uzbekistan..160 IV. 6 Public Service in Peacekeeping Operations: Bosnia and Hercegovina…………………………169 Chapter V …………………………………………….177 List of Documents…………………………………………..208 ii Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: A Documentary Reader INTRODUCTION This is a book of documents, comments, and cases that has been prepared, at the request of the European Institute for the Media, for the use of government officials and citizens interested in strengthening public service broadcasting in transition societies. We recognize the perils of this enterprise. First, the process of picking examples and models from one society and even parading them for another has its dangers. Too often, only the benefits of a proposed model are described without acknowledging the stresses they are under in their own homes. It is difficult to take a framework that has been shaped in one complicated organic context and adapt it in another. Second, complex issues surround public service broadcasting all over the world. We discuss many of these in Chapter 5, but for the moment, a few opening comments are pertinent. Public service broadcasting finds itself in the uneasy perch between state broadcasting (where there is direct dominance) and commercial broadcasting, the seemingly inexorable consequence of widely- lauded “market forces.” There are direct interests, direct lobbies, and direct instrumental consequences for each of these poles. Public service broadcasting is more of an ideal, more of a consummation of citizen desires and an element of a perfected democracy. Those who shape policy usually do so because of a specific output they desire. As a result, only if citizens and those who hold strongly to a set of public policy goals are deeply engaged can public service broadcasting obtain and hold a necessary constituency. Third, it is essential to examine the specific utility and importance of public service broadcasting in transition societies as well as the special risks and dangers that architects of public service broadcasting will face. Over the last decade, patterns have become apparent in the post-communist transitions. Public service broadcasting is needed as a tool of pluralism and diversity, as an instrument of education, unification, and building a constructive national identity. Public service broadcasting can sustain languages and cultures and help develop national talents in production and creativity. Public service broadcasting can act as an aid to reconciliation. 1 Introduction But public service broadcasting comes at a price, financially, in the capacity of the state to tolerate criticism and keep its hands off management and, in the resources needed to nurture an audience against the pressures of the persuasive and appealing channels of a newly opened global bazaar of entertainment (and information). In economies that must contend with balancing extraordinary claims on a struggling budget, public service broadcasting must be widely understood and its principles appreciated for expenditures to be justified. In many societies, the license fee will be the appropriate means to finance (or finance in part) the public service broadcasting sector, but this does not always go down well (as it can be seen as another tax) and does not always perform its purpose of limiting state interference. In economies where there is an underdeveloped consumer economy, advertising as a measure of support can be weak, and the willingness of individuals to pay a supplemental fee is often absent. This is even more difficult at a time when state budgets are stretched. As we try to show in Chapter 4, all transition societies have struggled with these questions. Governments have been loath to surrender control over boards of management, over the directorships of channels, or over the content of programming. Most transition societies have had financial difficulties. Finally, most transitional societies have found that the appeal of commercial television has weakened the hand of public broadcasting. In light of all of this, building a sustainable, accepted public service broadcaster is a complex task. In this book we try to provide a small chest of tools and background information that will be of assistance. We start, in Chapter 1, with an overview of some of the general principles of public service broadcasting, and include pertinent comments on each of them. Here, as throughout the book, we concentrate on issues of governance and financing, with some attention as well to issues surrounding programming. In Chapter 2, we turn to current issues in the European-level debate, partly from the perspective of European expectations and standards that are employed in evaluation and accession processes. In Chapter
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