Regulating the Changing Media: A Comparative Study

This new work on media regulation analyses and compares developments and trends across both the telecommunications and the broadcasting sectors in several different states. Using national reports, based on a common template to ensure comparable data, the book examines the ability of the law and other regulatory techniques to influence such a rapidly changing area. It exposes clearly the regulatory choices that are being made to control the so-called 'new media', including the internet, as well as examining the methods used to govern the more conventional media. The general move in the media to replace industry-specific regulations with competition law, and the extent to which self-regulation is increasingly employed by the various industries and how this is underpinned by statutory support is discussed in depth. The book looks at the regulatory systems in force in a whole range of countries, from members of the European Union, to Australia and the US, and Eastern Europe. The roles of the various European Institutions in media regulation are also examined. States' approaches to a wide variety of matters are looked at, from recent copyright developments to privacy and election laws The problems and success of these various alternative approaches are then analysed.

Table of Contents:
Preface ; Forward ; 1. Regulating the Changing Media ; 2. Germany ; 3. Italy ; 4. The United Kingdom ; 5. The European Institutions ; 6. Hungary ; 7. The United States ; 8. Australia ; 9. Conclusions ; Index

About the Author :
David Goldberg is Senior Lecturer in law at the University of Glasgow. Tony Prosser is John Millar Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow. Stefaan Verhulst is Programme Director of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford.

Review :
The book is a mine of interesting information ... The contributions in this book are well written and comprehensible, even for those who are new to the field and its technicalities. Those who seek to make or influence media policy will find the different concerns and perspectives thrown up by the country studies a valuable resource. The book will also be of interest to students and academics working in the field of comparative regulation and to those with a more specific interest in the communications sector. Above all, it makes a further contribution to the debate about the long-term future of media regulation. This book adds interesting prespectives to the many discussions that have already taken place on thye topic. It is well written, easily understandable, and well documented. - Paul Nihoul. Info. Vol 1 February 1999.