Comparative Analysis of Risks for Political Independence of Public Service Media Across 19 European Union Member States

Abstract

This paper examines risks for political independence of public service media in European Union Member States by examining safeguards for guaranteeing independence of public service media's governance and its funding mechanisms. The analysis was conducted in 19 EU countries through a questionnaire-based method. Local experts from each of the examined countries evaluated media policy on the appointment procedures for management and board functions in the PSM, and mechanisms of providing funding to the PSM by the government. In addition to examining media policy related to these issues, local teams also evaluated the extent to which these are implemented. The results show that in five out of 19 analysed countries local experts have described media policy as insufficient in providing fair, objective and transparent appointment procedures for management and board functions in PSM. Furthermore, more than half of the countries which considered national media policy on appointment procedures to be well defined in safeguarding PSM's independence, declared some degree of risk in the implementation of this policy, pointing to situations in which the government or other political groupings have in the past few years tried to interfere with the appointment processes. Also, results show that there are large differences in the mechanisms of PSM funding. Overall, results point to differences in media policies concerned with PSM's governance and funding among EU countries, with many risks associated with these policies and their implementation.

Pluralismo informativo y libertad en los medios en Chile: notas sobre las condiciones estructurales

“…Esta naciente valoración del pluralismo informativo en Chile, está en consonancia con el derecho internacional y la experiencia comparada (Duncan 2015, Duncan y Reid 2013, Hitchens 2015, Napoli 2015, Prasad 2015, Sükösd 2015, Vartanova 2015, Youn y Lee 2015. La importancia del pluralismo informativo en las discusiones de políticas públicas e innovaciones institucionales, puede constatarse en el actual Monitor de Pluralismo en los Medios de la Unión Europea dedicado a la evaluación de los riesgos al pluralismo en los estados miembros (European Commission 2007, Dobreva 2015, Kerremans 2010, Šimunjak 2016, Valcke 2012. Pero también pueden encontrarse relaciones internas con otras experiencias de medición de algunos componentes del pluralismo informativo como el Diversity Index en Estados Unidos y ejemplos similares en India con el proyecto aún en progreso del Media Diversity Index.…”