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FREE LAW JOURNAL - VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1 (18 JULY 2005)
PLURALITY OF OPINION VERSUS CONCENTRATION OF
OWNERSHIP : RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TURKISH MEDIA LAW
by
DR. SAIM UYE *
INTRODUCTION
Pluralism in media is an important aspect and necessity of democratic pluralism, which is considered to be
the basic principle of contemporary social orders. This stems esentially from the recognition of the need to
make information objectively and impartially available to the public for maintaining the proper
functioning of democratic procedure. The important role the media have, on one hand, for informed
participation of people in public affairs, and on the other, for free representation and exchange of different
views and opinions, makes media a cornerstone in the process of free formation of public opinion 1 .
This argumentation is clearly figured out when European (Council of Europe and European Union)
documents are examined 2 . Cavallin, referring to the Council of Europe documents to find a definition of
pluralism in relation to media, explains that “the notion of pluralism is understood to mean the scope for a
wide range of social, political and cultural values, opinions, information and interests to find expression
through the media. 3 ” In the Green Paper proposed by the European Commission in 1992, pluralism is
defined as “a legal concept whose purpose is to limit in certain cases the scope of the principle of freedom
of expression with a view to guaranteeing diversity of information for the public 4 .”
Pluralism, in this sense, is used to have two different but related meanings, one being “internal” and the
other “external”. Regulation of media is closely connected with the goal of protecting both kinds of
pluralism. Internal pluralism deals with ensuring diversity within the activity of a media operator; that is,
the content of communication in a single service is concerned. The rules in respect of internal pluralism
are simply about the obligations of operators to have different viewpoints offered in their programmes. As
for the external pluralism, the stress is not directly on the editorial content, but on the existence of various
organizations, which are structurally independent from each other. Having a number of different
operators, it is believed, will help safeguarding diversity and plurality. The rules addressing external
* PhD, Ankara University Faculty of Law, Turkey.
1 James Curran, “Mass Media and Democracy: A Reappraisal” , James Curran, Michael Gurevitch (eds), Mass Media and
Society, London, 1991, pp. 102-105.
2 See Media Diversity in Europe, Report prepared by AP-MD (Advisory Panel on Media Diversity) for CDMM (Council of
Europe Steering Committee on Mass Media), Strasbourg, 2002, p. 6.
3 Jens Cavallin, “European Policies and Regulations on Media Concentration”, International Journal of Communications Law
and Policy, February 1998, http://www.ijclp.org/1_1998/ijclp_webdoc_3_1_1998.html
4 Pluralism and Media Concentration in the Internal Market: An Assesment of the Need for Community Action, COM (92) 480
final, 23 Dec 1992, p. 18.
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DR. SAIM UYE - PLURALITY OF OPINION VERSUS CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP : RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TURKISH MEDIA LAW