Media Law And Regulation In The European Union

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.

Media Regulation in the European Union presents an anthology of the most important laws and regulations affecting journalism and the media in the European Union. It also covers relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. These laws are presented in historical, sociopolitical, and media contexts and are compared with their equivalent in the United States. The book generally looks at national -- country-specific legislations -- and transnational -- European Union-wide regulations. Specifically, the book addresses constitutional press or expression provisions, personal protections, morality and security issues, access to information and secrecy. Considerable attention is paid to the regulation of broadcasting and to the rules governing those who own the media and those who help sustain them -- advertisers and the advertising industry. The book's last chapter discusses media self-regulation and includes the codes of ethics of the professional journalists' organizations of the EuropeanUnion member nations.

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 book was originally published as a monograph in the International encyclopaedia of laws/Media law."

National broadcasting and press regulation is undergoing a process of convergence in Europe. This book, newly available in paperback, explains how this process has been shaped by the actions of the European Union (EU) institutions.Alison Harcourt observes that whilst communications is one of the EU's most successful policy areas, European decision-making is eroding the national capacity to regulate for the public interest. European-level efforts to protect public interest goals have been constrained by the European Treaties. The author argues that increased European coordination in public interest regulation could be more conducive to growth and competitiveness than the dismantling of existing national laws. This, however, would require changes to the political composition of the European Union.This book assesses the potential EU media regulation provides for market growth and the protection of media pluralism, the citizen and ultimately democracy itself. These opportunities are presented in the coming decade with the developing European Constitution, EU enlargement, and the implementation and revision of European regulation.

This publication is based on the discussions of a workshop organised by the European Audiovisual Observatory in September 2002, in collaboration with the Institute of European Media Law and the Institute for Information Law. It examines co-regulation as an alternative to traditional forms of media regulation (parliamentary acts, EU directives etc) in Europe, current examples of its use and possible areas of application, characteristics and legal requirements, benefits and risks associated with it. Topics discussed include: a comparison of co-regulation systems in relation to self-monitoring and self-regulation regimes, protection of human dignity, distribution of racist content, technical standards, the EU legal and policy framework, the Council of Europe approach, the implementation and enforcement of co-regulation codes in a transfrontier context, example texts for self-regulation and co-regulation in advertising, youth protection, hate speech, the independence of journalists and technical standards.

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

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.