Public Service Media in Europe [antikvár]

1 Introduction The Relevance of Public Service Media in Europe Karen Arriaza Ibarra, Eva Nowak and Raymond Kuhn Why Public Service Media? Karen Arriaza Ibarra For decades Public Service Media (PSM) have been the basis of European broadcasdng, a pillar of all democratic broadcast models in the Western wodd and an essential actor to promoting national audiovisual diversity, pluralism and muld-platform leadership. Many authors have theorized about these and other factors concerning PSM in Europe, spanning Tracey (1998), Syvertsen (1992, 2003), Syvertsen and Hallvard (2008), Jakubowicz (2008), Humphreys (1996, 2008 and 2009), and more recently Lowe (2010), Lowe and Edelvold Berg (2013), Lowe and Martin (2014) and Picard and Siciliani (2013). Having been called 'the pillar of Europeism that unifies all states and nanons' (Lohmus 2013/14), it is an undeniable fact that PSM are an issue that has caught the attention of authors and academics. The support which for years they have enjoyed from governments, citizens and EU authorities was reinforced by the Communication from the Commission on the Application of State Aid Rules to Public Service Broadcasting (2001), where the following is stated: Public service broadcasting, although having a clear economic relevance, is not comparable to a public service in any other economic sector. There is no other service that at the same nme has access to such a wide sector of the population, provides it with so much information and content, and by doing so conveys and influences both individual and public opinion. (Article 10) Finally, most European governments have expressed their firm beliefs in the contribution and the value of PSM to democratic sociedes (Council of Europe 2009). Nevertheless, despite the variety of authors and definitions, and the fact that the rules of the game were to be determined by each one of the Member States in a way that would idealisdcally promote a considerable degree of autonomy and