I refer to Poland in order to give some examples of the situation I mentioned above. After the collapse of communism the Polish legislature had introduced a system governing the appointment of members of the boards for public radio and television. This model was patterned after French practice in the corresponding area and was considered as properly safeguarding the independence of broadcasting by providing rules for a balanced political representation (candidates are nominated for non-overlapping terms by an independent body composed of the members appointed by different political authorities). As in years 1985-1987 political power (President, Diet and Senate) was in hands of one political camp and it coincided with the nominations, the composition of the boards for public radio and television still reflects the old ruling coalition. Now the main government party (and the biggest party in Parliament) has no representative in the boards while its smaller coalition partner has only one in radio. This situation generates a great deal of tensions. The system that was supposed to be politically balanced has turned out to produce different results. In Europe there are however other solutions in the field. For example in Germany and Austria members of television and radio boards are not limited to people appointed by political parties but represent a wider spectrum of public opinions. These solutions may be considered as alternative standards existing vis-à-vis the chosen ones.
Another example concerns financing of the media. Polish public television has become a big receiver of advertisements and this situation locates its younger private competitors in disadvantaged situation. Apart from huge profits from commercials (public television’s turnover situates it among the biggest enterprises in Poland), only public radio and television is financed by obligatory fees paid by the audience. Many European systems set limits on advertisements in public media or even exclude this practice altogether (BBC) in order to secure the position of commercial broadcasters and make public media actually public. There are also countries which due to the recent diminishing role of print media vis-à-vis audiovisual ones introduced solutions aiming to safeguard the position (and in some cases even the survival) of the former (e.g. Belgium, Sweden). Such solutions designed to secure plurality of opinions might be applicable in the new democracies (especially as the economic situation improves there). That might also eliminate the situation known in Poland in the beginning of 90’s when new quality newspapers on local level went bankrupt as they could not gain profits from ads which the public preferred to locate in old titles.
A newly emerging sphere of administrative standards is also related to the requirements resulting from European instruments which either are already binding on the countries of the region or will become applicable there in the near future. Many countries of the region signed the Convention on Transfrontier Television, other – especially those mentioned as the most eligible candidates in the process of the enlargement of the European Union – will be obliged to adjust their law and legal practice to European law. In the latter case especially important is directive 89/522 (as amended by directive 97/36) on the coordination of certain provisions laid by law, regulation and administrative action concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities. It provides rules for newly emerging techniques such as teletext services, teleshopping, as well as formulates new principles on advertising and European production quotas.
The research would cover the most advanced countries of the region: the Czeck Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. There are two basic reason for such a choice. First, in the perspective of the EU membership these countries are especially interested in standards in questions. Second, the four countries have also some experience in practising many models and solutions taken over or borrowed from traditional Western democracies. Accordingly they have discovered many deficiencies and are looking for improvements. I do not disregard the rest of the region. In fact I am of the opinion that for the less advanced countries results of the research might offer an insight not only into relevant standards but present the latter in the background of the specific experience of those more advanced. Such an approach would enable to show what went wrong and which alternatives are available.
The first main objective of the project will consist in collecting data and identifying what is called Western (especially European) administrative media standards. The second one will be to find main deficiencies and problems which exist in the four countries and call for improvements. The approach to particular topics will be comparative because discovering that in one country under research there is an effectively working instrument which is an alternative to models producing problems in another country will draw attention to this solution and the possibility of applying it.
The specific topics proposed for the research are the following: