Media and Democracy

Few people would disagree with the idea that broadcasting is one of the most important facilitators of the democratic process. European citizens are constantly asked to express their views and opinions on increasingly complex issues: consequently they have developed legitimate expectations regarding the broadcasting output, notably to providing the cultural resources required for a full and modern citizenship.

From the Iraq confl ict to the European elections from the reforms of educational or pension funding systems to the debate on the climate or nutrition changes, European citizens need to be appropriately involved by the media. They need extensive coverage, accurate treatment and editorial independence. Beyond news, citizens expect ‘knowledge oriented programming. The very concepts of democracy and welfare are based on such simple but vital provision of civic services. Everybody agrees on that. But if we look at the impoverishmentof the television programming and – in parallel at the diffi culties that national governments and media authorities encounter in regulating the broadcasting output we discover a real paradox: a discrepancy between declared political objectives and the available television output.

As a matter of fact, broadcasters are probably the most reluctant institutions and here is the paradox in accepting to be accountable to society. In other sectors of activity like the fi nancial one social responsibility, corporate governance, accountability and transparency have recently acquired the status of ‘serious’ issues to be urgently addressed: in all sectors except in what is unanimously called the ‘most important’ one: the broadcasting sector.