Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

BROADCASTING POLICY 107
identity. Policies at the EU level have only partially succeeded in addressing
the question of recognition (and redistribution) at the supranational
level, as they have failed to turn their attention quickly and sufficiently
enough to patterns of internal domination (Sarikakis 2005), among national
and intra-national constituencies, among women and men in their
access to cultural expression and policy-making and among EU citizens
and incoming or existing peoples without official status. From the available
global institutions, however, the EU as an international actor and the
EP as the first international institution to enjoy full legitimacy through its
direct relation to the European citizen have exerted significant resistance
to the assault of the integration of tele/communications markets.
However the questions associated with the broadcasting industry, and
especially the question of recognition of cultures and their rights to sufficient
communicative space and audiences, are not resolved. Instead, we
are currently witnessing a sophisticated attempt by powerful states such
as the US to elude questions of cultural diversity and protection of noncommercial
cultural goods through a new set of discourses and the regulatory
opportunity these offer. These discourses maintain their technological
deterministic tones, as they frame more and more policy questions
within the context of the ‘information society’ and the ‘knowledge economy’.
As digital content becomes steadily –but quietly – a firm component
of the liberalized list of services among bilateral agreements it will almost
automatically constitute part of (liberalized) e-commerce. It is significant
to note that the review of the TVWF directive currently underway in the
EU has caused strong reactions from Internet Service Providers and the
pornography industry by its proposals to expand protection of cultural
content and control of content to digital services (EC 2005a; 2005b).
Similarly, the latest decision of the EU not to support a US-based administration
of the Internet through the private entity ICANN, irrespective
of the outcome that saw the US maintaining its position, signals a new
turn in EU politics. For one, the assumption that traditional media and
the Information Society media can be dealt with separately seems to lose
ground, as the concerns expressed in the public consultation procedure
indicate. Through the integration of Internet and television, through the
Internet Protocol TV, and the system of multiplex, it becomes difficult
for policy-makers and states to proceed to any proactive measure that can
guarantee a minimum standard of public service mission in the private
media. The question of a minimum available supply of audiovisual
material that derives from independent productions is one that will
remain on the agenda for some time. The following chapter addresses
the contexts, myths, and pressures for these Information Society policies
that expand to the whole range of the global field of communications
policy.