Search results

The advent of internet-based services and applications has blurred the technological boundaries between the press, broadcasting and telecommunications, challenging their regulatory silos. 'Press Freedom and Regulation in a Digital Era' assesses the extent to which the emergent regulatory model for online news media is shaped by analogies from the past, or rather by a newly prevalent culture of control.

Observers of the media policies of the European Union contend that the transmission state principle of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, by ruling out the restriction of transfrontier broadcasts, which are in compliance with the laws of the originating state, has signified the end of the broadcasting sovereignty of the Member States. The transmission state principle is central to the objective of the Television Without Frontiers Directive to create an internal market in broadcasting services. Laid down initially in Article 2(2) of Directive 89/552/EEC, it has been transferred to Article 2a(1) following the adoption of the revised Directive 97/36/EC. The meaning of the principle has remained the same: Member States are obliged to ensure the unhindered reception of broadcasts lawfully transmitted in their state of origin. They only have a limited possibility to derogate provisionally from the transmission state principle, when foreign television broadcasts manifestly, seriously and gravely breach provisions concerning the protection of minors or public order.

In 2013 the Greek government closed down public broadcaster ERT and made its employees redundant as part of the latest public spending cuts imposed to meet the terms of the country's bailout deal. In effect, this has left the commercially dominated Greek broadcasting landscape without a public channel and its citizens dependent on the private media sector for the provision of information, entertainment and education. One can rightly accuse ERT of lacking clear public interest objectives, overstaffing, bureaucracy, wastefulness and over-rewards for senior management, but its abrupt closure without consultation and a strategic plan is an attack on free speech and public space by the Greek government. ERT required restructuring, but not closing down. Public service broadcasters play a crucial role in producing and disseminating public service output that brings citizens together and enhances the educational and cultural aspect. This paper is concerned with analysing the reasons behind, and consequences of seizing a public service broadcaster such as ERT. After providing a background of the historical role and remit of ERT, the article focuses on the legal questions surrounding the Council of State decision regarding ERT's closure. The final part examines the legality of ERT's closure from the EU and ECHR perspective. The central argument is that the closure of a public channel limits pluralism and freedom of speech in a market-driven Greek economy.

This study examines the attitudes of four Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)-regulated UK newspapers towards redressing inaccuracies in their print editions. It analyses the ways in which the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Sun dealt with complaints in order to assess their attitudes towards the editorial standard of accuracy. Further, this study aims to evaluate IPSO's impact on the newspapers' complaints-handling processes throughout 2016, more than a year after its establishment, at a time when its regulatory arsenal had been consolidated and put into practice. We found that there was no evidence of any binary opposition in a spectrum of quality/popular press reflected in the sample newspapers' respective attitudes and responses toward IPSO's complaints-handling standards on matters of inaccuracy. Furthermore, our evaluation of the position, timing and wording of the published corrections of all four newspapers did not confirm a marked difference in the extent to which they were prepared to demonstrate their accountability to their readers by drawing published inaccuracies to their attention. IPSO has contributed to more systematic complaints handling but more needs to be done. Our findings are of wider relevance beyond the specific period under investigation.