University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Other Publications from the Center for Global Center for Global Communication Studies Communication Studies (CGCS) 4-2003 Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE Tarlach McGonagle Bethany Davis Noll Monroe Price University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Recommended Citation McGonagle, Tarlach; Davis Noll, Bethany; and Price, Monroe. (2003). Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE. Other Publications from the Center for Global Communication Studies. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/3 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/3 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE Abstract There are a large number of language-related regulations (both prescriptive and proscriptive) that affect the shape of the broadcasting media and therefore have an impact on the life of persons belonging to minorities. Of course, language has been and remains an important instrument in State-building and maintenance. In this context, requirements have also been put in place to accommodate national minorities. In some settings, there is legislation to assure availability of programming in minority languages.1 Language rules have also been manipulated for restrictive, sometimes punitive ends. A language can become or be made a focus of loyalty for a minority community that thinks itself suppressed, persecuted, or subjected to discrimination. Regulations relating to broadcasting may make language a target for attack or suppression if the authorities associate it with what they consider a disaffected or secessionist group or even just a culturally inferior one.