Cultural Diversity and the EC Audiovisual Media Services Directive: Beyond the Handsome Rhetoric
29 Pages Posted: 2 Apr 2009
Date Written: March 30, 2009
Abstract
The European Community (EC) has recently and after lengthy and strenuous deliberations reformed its media regulation and adopted the Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMS) as a successor of the Television without Frontiers Directive. The present paper examines in particular whether and how the modifications to the EC audiovisual media regime may influence cultural diversity in European media and contemplate whether in this regard the AVMS appropriately safeguards the balance between economic and other public interests. Cultural diversity is singled out as a regulatory objective because of its recent prominence in policy discussions at national, regional and international levels and its legal emancipation through the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
Keywords: EC media law, Audiovisual Media Services Directive, Television without Frontiers Directive, cultural diversity, trade, culture, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, digital media
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