This article tries to examine the latest European Commission (EC) policy developments in the media sector through the new concept of soft regulation. Much criticized for its media policy approaches, the EC seems to try to rebuild media freedom and media pluralism protection foundations at the EU level with several new initiatives based on soft regulation. This article analyses these soft-regulatory media policy actions to answer the following questions: Have soft-regulatory measures been a good option to improve media pluralism policy at the EU level? Are there better mechanisms that EU can employ to assist Member States in promoting media pluralism? The aim of the research is to see whether these new EC debates and softregulatory initiatives have made a real change in the traditional way that EC has been dealing with audio-visual matters or whether it is only repeating old answers to old questions.
Can a uniform policy for media pluralism be adopted across the 28 Member States of the European Union through the involvement of independent regulatory authorities? According to the authors, the chances remain remote due to political and stakeholder opposition grounded in diverse structural, cultural, political, and economic interests. Based on a review of key documents from diverse sources, and case studies in Hungary and Italy, it appears that the goal of an EU-wide collaborative network of financially and politically independent audiovisual regulatory authorities, with common standards, faces significant challenges. However, the authors see hope in the increased debate on the topic, and suggest that some movement in that direction may yet be possible.
Can a uniform policy for media pluralism be adopted across the 28 Member States of the European Union through the involvement of independent regulatory authorities? According to the authors, the chances remain remote due to political and stakeholder opposition grounded in diverse structural, cultural, political, and economic interests. Based on a review of key documents from diverse sources, and case studies in Hungary and Italy, it appears that the goal of an EU-wide collaborative network of financially and politically independent audiovisual regulatory authorities, with common standards, faces significant challenges. However, the authors see hope in the increased debate on the topic, and suggest that some movement in that direction may yet be possible.
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