SOME REMARKS ON THE P UBLIC SERVICE MEDIA REFORM: THE CE NTRAL AND EAST-EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

1. SOME REMARKS ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA REFORM: THE CENTRAL AND EAST-EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE INFOCIVICA CONFERENCE  IS BUILDING AN EUROPEAN PUBLIC SERVICE POSSIBLE? AFTER THE LISBON TREATY: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS Turin, 24.09. 2009 Beata Klimkiewicz Institute of Journalism and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

2. INTRODUCTION Doespolicy-makingprocessconcerning PSM reflectdemocraticexpectations? Doesitevolvetowards a convergedpan-European model drivenlargely by a commercial logic, but stilleffectivelycontrolled by party politicsratherthanforces of representativedemocracy? Poland and CEE as a laboratorycase Public Service Media’sphases of development – introduction, growth, maturity and decline – marked by differentlength and intensitythaninotherEuropeancountriesor regions

3. THREE LIMITATIONS Public Service Media (PSM) in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) born as a product of a profound media system changestartingin 1989 ‘new’ PSM preservedinstitutionalcontinuity of former state media despiteavailability of otheroptions, dual system was transposedfrom West European media landscape and policytradition thestarting point of PSM institutionalbirthin Poland and other Central Europeancountriesoverlappedwithenhancedcritique and PSM crisisinthe Western part of Europe

4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS • REGULATORY • new regulatory bodies have emerged across the region • the establishment of the Office for Electronic Communication in Poland in 2005 advertised as a super-regulatory ‘make-up’ • ‘Old’ distinctions between traditional media sectors still reproduced through distinct policy mechanisms implemented by ‘old’ and ‘new’ regulators

5. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS • FINANCING • financing of PSM solelyfromlicencefeesappearedunaffordablein Poland • duringthelast ten years, licencefeerevenuehasoscillatedaround 30% intotalrevenues • the Act on Public Tasks in the Area of Audiovisual Services (2009) • public service tasks will be financedfromthe state budget • state subsidies for PSM will have to be negotiatedeachyear, whichcanresultin a politicalbargainingoverthebudgetallocationsattheexpense of editorialindependence

6. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS • PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION • implementation of public service mission increasingly criticised across the region • high-quality programming profile abandonedattheexpense ofhigh market shares • 2009 Draft Actproposed‘institutional’ division for the public service provision: also commercial and private broadcasters can receive public funds to produce public service programming

7. public service media framed and seen - less as institutions and quite homogenous centres of a media system- and more as services and applications available in fragmented communication networks a new discoursive space where justification of a centralised institution seems more difficult

8. Does it make sense to talk about a European public service broadcasting? we should stop to talk about broadcasting exclusively move from a traditional model of television toward a network structure of various media businesses and services including internet TV, news portal, social web services, digital platform a formerly centralized institution modified into a whole net of interlinked services: the center of gravity located not in the institutional elements of the system, but rather relations and connectiveness between different service areas

9. What would it mean for today's national public service broadcasters to set up a European, or pan-European public service broadcaster? a failure to create transnational pan-European public service TV is largely embedded in cultural, linguistic differences in Europe(Chalaby, 2002) the view of nations as old, deeply integrated, and integrated through communications between their members, has been dominant (Bourdon, 2007) the use of television is very much affected by formation of geolinguistic regions, not defined by geographic or political proximity, but by a community of language and culture(Sinclair, 2000; Amezaga Albizu , 2008)

10. REPORTING EUROPE MORE? there is certainly need to offer more targeted and focused options a new generation of Europeans, children raised in multicultural environments, migration patterns stable national structures of settlement have changed with intra-European mobility and EU enlargement

11. Is it still correct to maintain the peculiarity of a mixed public-private system that historically characterised the old continent on a national level? Do we need the public service at all? new technological conditions pose new risks: media users suffer from information overload and the loss of ‘traditional’ information filters there is often no way to differentiate quality information Internet content produces levels of audience concentration greater than those in traditional media although there is a great potential in diversity of new online services, this potential has not been fully used by users

12. NEW TASKS • to adapt old principles to new circumstances • a system of mandated links to quality content and opposing viewpoints so as to create ‘deliberative domains’ • to strengthen media user and equip him/her with technological facilities and media literacy skills in order to better use the potential of online and digital services • alternative routes toward richer empirical and normative understanding of PSM, both in terms of institutions and services offered across national or pan-European political and cultural space

13. THANK YOU! beatakl@hotmail.com