Media Ownership Regulation: A Comparative Perspective
Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, Vol. 37, No. 421, 2009
Elon University Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2013-11
34 Pages Posted: 12 Jul 2013 Last revised: 26 Jul 2013
Date Written: 2009
Abstract
For decades, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has enforced limits on the media holdings of a single owner in the United States at both the national and local level, and has generally prohibited one entity's joint ownership of a television station and major newspaper in a single community. The FCC's rules all rest on the same presumption: the amount of media ownership's concentration in private hands relates to the number of viewpoints expressed in the idea marketplace. A comparative look at broadcast regulation provides a means to examine the ownership presumption's implementation across different countries, and to determine whether governments are right to assume that a greater number of media outlet owners are more likely to provide a broad range of content than a smaller number. This Article focuses on media ownership regulation in Western Europe, in particular the United Kingdom's decision to deposit broadcast television ownership in a state monopoly through the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC's history shows that when governments limit media ownership, they do so out of content-based concerns. This fact brings the FCC's own actions into conflict with the First Amendment.
Keywords: media law, communications law, international and comparative law, Federal Communications Commission, British Broadcasting Corporation
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