European Media Communication Law

This primer presents the legal framework of the extremely complex regulation of legacy and digital media in Europe by the European Union and the Council of Europe. The volume is divided in five chapters which take into account the European Convention of Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU; the regulation of broadcasting; digital communication platforms; data protection in the context of information and communication; and a plurality of other hot topics such as copyright protection, women’s dignity, hate speech and fake news. All the chapters are linked to over 70 decisions of the Strasbourg and Luxembourg courts which are collected in a 300-page Appendix.

This cutting-edge Research Handbook presents a comprehensive overview of the European Union’s influence on the regulation of the media sector in the digital age. It explores and compares several areas of European legislation that have an impact on the media sector, defined in a broad sense for its capacity to influence the public opinion at large.

Supplies an in-depth commentary on EU media law, with detailed analysis of all important legislation and court decisions. It leads European lawyers with vast knowledge and practical experience of media law provide detailed expert commentary.

This unique textbook offers a comprehensive overview of European and international media law, and how globalised communication has shaped it.

Over the past half century, western democracies have lead efforts to entrench the economic and political values of liberal democracy into the foundations of European and international public order. As this book details, the relationship between the media and the state has been at the heart of those efforts. In that relationship, often framed in constitutional principles, the liberal democratic state has celebrated the liberty to publish information and entertainment content, while also forcefully setting the limits for harmful or offensive expression. It is thus a relationship rooted in the state's need for security, authority, and legitimacy as much as liberalism's powerful arguments for economic and political freedom. In Europe, this long running endeavour has yielded a market based, liberal democratic regional order that has profound consequences for media law and policy in the member states. This book examines the economic and human rights aspects of European media law, which is not only comparatively coherent but also increasingly restrictive, rejecting alternatives that are well within the traditions of liberalism. Parallel efforts in the international sphere have been markedly less successful. In international media law, the division between trade and human rights remains largely unabridged and, in the latter field, liberal democratic concepts of free speech are influential but rarely decisive. In the international sphere states are moreover quick to assert their rights to autonomy. Nonetheless, the current communications revolution has overturned fundamental assumptions about the media and the state around the world, eroding the boundaries between domestic and foreign media as well as mass and personal communication. European and International Media Law sets legal and policy developments in the context of this fast changing, globalized media and communications sector.

Contributing to a rethink of Public Service Media, this book combines theoretical insights and legal frameworks with practice, examining theory and policy development in a bottom-up manner. It explores the practices of Public Service Media across Europe, assessing the rules that govern Public Service Media at both the EU and the National Member State level, identifying common trends, initiated by both the European Commission and individual countries, illustrating the context-dependent development of Public Service Media and challenging the theories of Public Service Broadcasting which have developed an ideal-type public broadcaster based on the well-funded BBC in an atypical media market. Seeking to further explore the actual practices of Public Service Media and make recommendations for the development of more sustainable policies, this book offers case studies of rules and practices from across a variety of EU Member States to consider the extent to which public broadcasters are making the transition to public media organisations, and how public broadcasters and governments are shaping Public Service Media together. This book is a must-read for all scholars who take an interest in Public Service Media, media policy and media systems literature at large. It will also be of interest to practitioners working in government, Public Service Media and commercial media.

Leading scholars investigate media policies in Europe, inquiring into the regulatory practices, policy tools and institutional features of media policy-making in 14 countries. The book offers a fresh assessment of the ways European media policies are formulated and identifies the factors that exert an influence throughout the process.

Featuring specially commissioned chapters from experts in the field of media and communications law, this book provides an authoritative survey of media law from a comparative perspective. The handbook does not simply offer a synopsis of the state of affairs in media law jurisprudence, rather it provides a better understanding of the forces that generate media rules, norms, and standards against the background of major transformations in the way information is mediated as a result of democratization, economic development, cultural change, globalization and technological innovation. The book addresses a range of issues including: Media Law and Evolving Concepts of Democracy Network neutrality and traffic management Public Service Broadcasting in Europe Interception of Communication and Surveillance in Russia State secrets, leaks and the media A variety of rule-making institutions are considered, including administrative, and judicial entities within and outside government, but also entities such as associations and corporations that generate binding rules. The book assesses the emerging role of supranational economic and political groupings as well as non-Western models, such as China and India, where cultural attitudes toward media freedoms are often very different. Monroe E. Price is Director of the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for the University of Pennsylvania and Joseph and Sadie Danciger Professor of Law and Director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society at the Cardozo School of Law. Stefaan Verhulst is Chief of Research at the Markle Foundation. Previously he was the co-founder and co-director, with Professor Monroe Price, of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at Oxford University, as well as senior research fellow at the Centre for Socio Legal Studies. Libby Morgan is the Associate Director of the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for the University of Pennsylvania.