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FREE LAW JOURNAL - VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1 (18 JULY 2005)
unlimited number of channels provided that the totality of the channels of a company should not achieve
an audience share more than % 30 18 . The following interstate treaties, namely 2002 Treaty and recent one
which is in effect since 01 April 2005 19 , keep this provision. The treshold is % 25 for a company which is
proved to be the holder of a dominant position in other media-relevant markets 20 .
1.3. Italy
In Italy, the role of the Constitutional Court in liberalisation of broadcasting system seems remarkable.
The private services that started to operate in the country have been legalised, at the regional level first,
after a Constitutional Court decision of 1976 which abolished the existing public monopoly. The
spontaneous and illegally created new national networks were legimitated again by a decision of
Constitutional Court in 1984. But there were no regulation regarding the ownership matters until 1990.
This has led to a huge degree of concentration in the market 21 .
1990 Broadcasting Law which contained rules restraining private ownersip for the first time, has been
criticised of being a legal confirmation of already existing concentration level 22 . The Law faced several
modificitions in following years. Consequently, the rules limited the number of licences to be held by an
operator for national television to %20 of national capacity (this corresponded to two channels). In
addition to this, the revenues to be collected by a broadcaster from its radio or television sector was
limited to %30 of total market resources 23 . According to the cross-ownership rules, on the other hand, the
broadcasters having activities also in newspaper or magazine sectors were restricted to obtain maximum
%20 of total resources of both sectors 24 .
In December 2003 the Italian parliament passed a new law called “Gasparri Law” 25 , which, by allowing
anyone to own more than two national channels and widening the way for cross-ownership between
broadcasters and newspapers, legitimized factual situation. The new limit regarding the maximum
obtainable revenue is determined as %20 of the market, but the market is redefined so broadly
(“integrated communication system”) that this may be seen as an indirect relaxation of previous crossownership
rules 26 . After a period of controversy between the President who has once refused to sign the
new Law and the ruling party which defended it, the Gasparri Law has been finally re-adopted by Italian
Senate on 29 April 2004 and entered into force on 6 May 2004 27 .
18 This limit was determined over the real audience shares already achieved by companies in practice, Kleinwächter, Ibid, p.
55. Levy considers this as “the most significant liberalising move in Europe”, Levy, op.cit., pp. 114, 115.
19 http://www.zdf-werbung.de/downloads/downloadfiles/RStV.pdf
20 Ward, op.cit., p. 91.
21 Giuseppe Dallera, Maria Vagliasindi, Pietro Vagliasindi, “Italy”, in Goldberg, Prosser, Verhulst (eds), op.cit., p. 75;
Harcourt, Verhulst, supra note 12.
22 Dallera, Vagliasindi, Vagliasindi, Ibid, p. 76.
23 Dallera, Vagliasindi, Vagliasindi, Ibid, pp. 76, 85, 87; Ward, op.cit, p. 108; Media Diversity in Europe, supra note 2, p. 12.
24 Ward, op.cit., p. 109; Dallera, Vagliasindi, Vagliasindi, Ibid, p. 87. These legal limits regarding licences and revenues have
been exceeded by operators in reality, Ward, Ibid.
25 http://www.comunicazioni.it/en/index.php?IdNews=18
26 Ward, op.cit., p. 110; see http://www.osce.org/documents/pdf_documents/2005/06/14949-1.pdf
27 Ward, Ibid; see http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8695
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DR. SAIM UYE - PLURALITY OF OPINION VERSUS CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP : RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TURKISH MEDIA LAW