Is the public interest under threat? Public service broadcasting, market failure and new technologies: the view from the European Union

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Michalis
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Market Failure ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting

scholarly journals Financing the public service broadcasting under European Union law

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 451-463
Author(s):  
Pauline Trouillard
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Proportionality Test

A protocol annexed to the Amsterdam Treaty, regarding public broadcasting in Member States, provides that Member States are free to fund public service broadcasting as far as it does not affect competition in the European Union to an extent which would be contrary to the common interest. As a result of this condition, the European Commission carries out a proportionality test to check if there is no overcompensation or disproportionate effects of public funding. It nonetheless does so by adopting a global control which considers all public broadcaster programmes as part of the public service remit. Such control is problematic because it does not take into account the distinction between commercial and public service programmes nor the actual quality of programmes. The Commission indeed focuses its control on the advertisement market, making sure that public broadcasters do not take advantage of public funding to lower the price of advertisement rates. The freedom enjoyed by public broadcasters to provide any types of programmes as far as they respect the advertisement market comes out to be contrary to citizen welfare.

scholarly journals The Principle of Sustainable Development as the Basis for Weighing the Public Interest and Individual Interest in the Scope of the Cultural Heritage Protection Law in the European Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3985
Author(s):  
Adam Kozień
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Individual Interest ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Environmental Aspect ◽  
The Public

The concept of sustainable development is widely used, especially in social, environmental and economic aspects. The principle of sustainable development was derived from the concept of sustainable development, which appears in legal terms at the international, EU, national and local levels. Today, the value of cultural heritage that should be legally protected is indicated. A problematic issue may be the clash in this respect of the public interest related to the protection of heritage with the individual interest, expressed, e.g., in the ownership of cultural heritage designates. During the research, scientific methods that are used in legal sciences were used: theoretical–legal, formal–dogmatic, historical–legal methods, as well as the method of criticism of the literature, and legal inferences were also used. The analyses were carried out on the basis of the interdisciplinary literature on the subject, as well as international, EU and national legal acts—sources of the generally applicable law. Research has shown that the interdisciplinary principle of sustainable development, especially from the perspective of the social and auxiliary environmental aspect, may be the basis for weighing public and individual interests in the area of legal protection of cultural heritage in the European Union. It was also indicated that it is possible in the situation of treating the principle of sustainable development in terms of Dworkin’s “policies” and allows its application not only at the level of European Union law (primary and secondary), but also at the national legal orders of the European Union Member States.

Human rights restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and Russia. Legal and comparative aspects

2021 ◽  
Vol 2(24) ◽  
pp. 323-340
Author(s):  
Marta Pietras-Eichberger
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
The Impact

The study analyzed selected issues related to the scope of human rights and freedoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and Russia. The author wanted to compare the regulations issued by a Member State of the European Union and a country outside the European Union, often using undemocratic methods of exercising power. The work focuses on research problems related to the principles of protection, the confrontation of individual interests with the public interest, and the impact of the regimes introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic on human rights law in both countries. The thesis of the study is that in the event of a threat to public health, analogous restrictions on human rights are introduced both in an undemocratic country and in a country belonging to international structures identifying with democratic values. The state of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed, and in some area even contributed to the creation of mechanisms reserved for crisis situations, posing a direct and real threat to public safety and health.

2. Copyright

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Press
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Dramatic Works ◽  
Sound Recordings ◽  
Fair Dealing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Musical Works

This chapter defines copyright as arising whenever a work is created under qualifying conditions. The Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) defines eight types of work that fall under two categories: works that must be original or ‘authorial works’, including literary works, dramatic works, musical works, and artistic works; and works that need not be original or ‘entrepreneurial works’: films, sound recordings, broadcasts, and the typographical arrangement of published editions. Copyright is infringed by copying or communicating the whole or a substantial part of a work—referred to as primary infringement—or by dealing in infringing copies of a work-referred to as secondary infringement. There are some major and many minor defences to copyright infringement including the ‘fair dealing’ defences and the public interest. Many aspects of copyright law have been harmonized by the European Union.

Television and Public Service: A Brief History1

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Broadcasting Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
British Culture

This chapter traces the history of public service television. The history of British public service broadcasting policy in the 20th century is characterized by a series of very deliberate public interventions into what might otherwise have developed as a straightforward commercial marketplace. The creation of the BBC, the launch of an ITV network required to produce public service programming, and the addition of the highly idiosyncratic Channel 4 gave the UK a television ecology animated by quality, breadth of programming and an orientation towards serving the public interest. At each of these three moments, the possibilities of public service television were expanded and British culture enriched as a result. The 1990 Broadcasting Act and the fair wind given to multichannel services may have ended the supremacy of the public service television ideal. However, public service television has survived, through the design of the institutions responsible for it, because of legislative protection, and as a result of its continuing popularity amongst the public.

scholarly journals Public nuisance or an asset to democracy? Does the free press aim to provide a public service? An empirical study examining journalistic functions within the normative framework of the European Union

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Isabell Lohmann ◽  
Andreas Riedl
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Empirical Approach ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Free Press ◽  
The Public ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Public Nuisance

Utilizing an empirical approach, this paper lays out how journalistic functions differ from the perception of journalists working for the free and paid press in Austria. Analyses indicate that free press journalists appear to be significantly more inclined to generate discourse with their audience, but are also more influenced by commercialization than their colleagues working for the paid press. Both the free and paid press seem to fulfill diverging democratic functions that can be valuable to the public. Finally, the normative notion of journalistic functions as legislated by the European Union (EU) seems only partially represented within the journalists’ self-perception.

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