The Pursuit of Pluralism: Lessons from the New French Audiovisual Communications Law
62 Pages Posted: 19 Jan 2009
Date Written: 1985
Abstract
Electronic mass communications, which have become increasingly influential over the past quarter century, have also undergone rapid and profound technological change. Constitutional governments around the world have struggled to apply their fundamental legal principals to the electronic media through sensible and balanced regulation. Perhaps the central problem in such regulation is to protect truth in the media, mainly by encouraging diversity, without allowing the regulators themselves to exert undue influence over what is disseminated over the airwaves and cables of a country's communications infrastructure. The following article traces the history of France's attempts to solve this problem in its electronic media law, analyzes the most recent reform of French law and suggests some possibilities for applying the lessons of the French experience to U.S. regulation of electronic media.
Keywords: electronic media, mass communications, technological change, regulation
JEL Classification: K23, K33, K39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation