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conservative. “Many artists, consumers, musicians and journalistsknow that such protestations <strong>of</strong> cable and internet competitionby the huge dominators <strong>of</strong> content and communicationare malarkey”, writes the famous American columnist WilliamSafire, who surely does not rank among the “Leftists” <strong>of</strong> theUnited States: “Does that sound un-conservative? Not to me.<strong>The</strong> concentration <strong>of</strong> power – political, corporate, media, cultural– should be anathema to conservatives. <strong>The</strong> diffusion <strong>of</strong>power through local control, thereby encouraging individual participation,is the essence <strong>of</strong> federalism and the greatest expression<strong>of</strong> democracy.” 35Legal limits to cross-media ownership are in place in mostEuropean countries. Yet, at this very moment when US mediagiants are pulling all strings to lower the entry barrier into theEuropean markets, many European governments are planningnew legislation which would, if enacted, give no additional protectionto their national media but open the doors widely toglobally operating foreign media concerns.<strong>The</strong> British Government advocates for opening the nationalmarket to the point where non-EU media firms could own commercialTV stations. Based on the findings <strong>of</strong> the CompetitionCommission that even locally high levels <strong>of</strong> concentration in thedaily newspaper sector do not necessarily “operate against thepublic interest”, newspaper mergers will be considered with “alighter touch approach”. Even though the British Governmentremains – at least on paper – committed to “maintaining diversityand plurality”, the print market share ceiling as the mainthreshold for triggering anti-concentration legislation will beraised. Finally regulation on cross-ownership especially betweenelectronic media and print media will be watered down.Similar projects are under way in Italy, where Prime Ministerand media magnate Silvio Berlusconi directly or indirectly40 THE IMPACT OF MEDIA CONCENTRATION ON PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM
owns or controls not only the three biggest private TV Channels,but the public service broadcaster RAI as well.Even before the new media law the Italian media marketwas already suffering from a worryingly high level <strong>of</strong> concentrationin all sectors. Not publishers in the classical sense, butindustrial tycoons, are the owners <strong>of</strong> Italy’s biggest daily newspapers.Except for the biggest selling daily, which is a sportspaper, all <strong>of</strong> them are linked to either ideological areas/politicalparties or to pr<strong>of</strong>essional associations like the Italian IndustrialistAssociation Confindustria. It is an open secret that eachpaper plays to the agenda <strong>of</strong> its owner. Journalists are seen asserving these agendas willingly. Not surprisingly, Italians donot rate the credibility <strong>of</strong> the print media and most <strong>of</strong> their journalistsas very high.An exception in this morass used to be the public servicebroadcaster RAI; not so much because <strong>of</strong> the quality <strong>of</strong> RAI’sreporting but because <strong>of</strong> the general knowledge <strong>of</strong> the politicalaffiliation <strong>of</strong> each <strong>of</strong> its three channels. Listening into the programmes<strong>of</strong> all three channels it was possible to get a more orless accurate picture <strong>of</strong> a given event. Not so any more, sinceMr. Berlusconi came into <strong>of</strong>fice, only to follow the decade oldhabit <strong>of</strong> nominating his friends and political allies for key positionswith RAI.<strong>The</strong> new media law does not only cement Mr. Berlusconi’sstranglehold on the Italian media, it would also benefit the longterm commercial plans <strong>of</strong> the Prime Minister’s close personalfriend, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. <strong>The</strong> stern warning fromPresident Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to safeguard media pluralismand diversity as an indispensable corner stone <strong>of</strong> Italian democracyhas largely been ignored by the ruling centre-right coalition.<strong>The</strong> President <strong>of</strong> the Lombardian Journalist Association,35 William Safire, “Public Interest is threatened by <strong>Media</strong> Power Grabs”, New YorkTimes (23 May 2003).JOHANNES VON DOHNANYI 41
Page 3 and 4: REPRESENTATIVE ON FREEDOM OF THE ME
Page 5 and 6: ContentsPrefaceby Freimut Duve 9Int
Page 7: 6. Conclusions 187AnnexQuestionnair
Page 10 and 11: advertisement is very insecure, mak
Page 12 and 13: industrial lobbying groups still di
Page 15 and 16: 1. The Imp
Page 17 and 18: sidents” had been imprisoned. “
Page 19 and 20: determined Freedom of</stro
Page 21 and 22: co-operate fully with the OSCE Repr
Page 23 and 24: Such independence, however, comes a
Page 25 and 26: and mirror of the
Page 27 and 28: 30 million rely exclusively on info
Page 29 and 30: Unchecked, concentration will reduc
Page 31 and 32: protected, a certain level
Page 33 and 34: indication of the
Page 35 and 36: time, as the concept of</st
Page 37 and 38: It appears, however, that this posi
Page 39: 1.7 New Threats on the Horizon1.7.1
Page 43 and 44: Target countries sometimes interpre
Page 45 and 46: independence proposed by the OSCE R
Page 47 and 48: groups to grow. And there is the in
Page 49 and 50: areas of Central a
Page 51 and 52: Directly or indirectly Mr. Silvio B
Page 53 and 54: Yet this simple notion appears to b
Page 55 and 56: newspaper firms. Using the argument
Page 57 and 58: a contribution to democratization a
Page 59: tation of this for
Page 62 and 63: This limitation in no way indicates
Page 64 and 65: press is ridiculous. Journalists co
Page 66 and 67: But these progressive aspects <stro
Page 68 and 69: Nevertheless, the loss of</
Page 70 and 71: may well be true for journalists fr
Page 72 and 73: Is there a works council at your ne
Page 74 and 75: will go to television, this being t
Page 76 and 77: Economic revenue (%) Fig. 61234510,
Page 78 and 79: Good relations with the business co
Page 80 and 81: Further, how can a newspaper, whose
Page 82 and 83: Service for civil society (%) Fig.
Page 84 and 85: The Norwegian medi
Page 86 and 87: Have you ever been put under pressu
Page 88 and 89: Do you feel threatened in your posi
Page 91 and 92:
4. Number of Title
Page 93 and 94:
5. Country Reports5.1 Germany5.1.1
Page 95 and 96:
Süddeutsche Zeitung (463,000), Lei
Page 97 and 98:
publisher, the Axel Springer Verlag
Page 99 and 100:
A three directional strategy is wha
Page 101 and 102:
5.1.2 Survey ResultsBacked by tradi
Page 103 and 104:
Cross-ownership has also increased
Page 105 and 106:
Economic revenue (%) Fig. 61234515,
Page 107 and 108:
Service for civil society (%) Fig.
Page 109 and 110:
Understandably all German journalis
Page 111 and 112:
Do you feel threatened in your posi
Page 113 and 114:
As also seen in Germany, the data p
Page 115 and 116:
5.2.2 Survey ResultsFinland compete
Page 117 and 118:
Newspaper chains were the logical r
Page 119 and 120:
5.3 United Kingdom5.3.1 Country Rep
Page 121 and 122:
• Daily Mail and General Trust: D
Page 123 and 124:
Is there a works council at your ne
Page 125 and 126:
Economic revenue (%) Fig. 61234510,
Page 127 and 128:
Service for civil society (%) Fig.
Page 129 and 130:
Do you feel free to voice and write
Page 131:
Page 134 and 135:
Newspaper reach (%)All Adults 30.1M
Page 136 and 137:
As regards ownership concentration,
Page 138 and 139:
Financial BackgroundDespite the pre
Page 140 and 141:
5.4.2 Survey resultsIf Finnish jour
Page 142 and 143:
of those mini-comp
Page 144 and 145:
for example, is very clear on this
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
5.5.2 Survey ResultsAn anonymous It
Page 150 and 151:
portfolio. In addition, as democrat
Page 152 and 153:
Mr. Berlusconi’s TV advertisement
Page 154 and 155:
5.6 Lithuania5.6.1 Country ReportCa
Page 156 and 157:
is quite remarkable. The</s
Page 158 and 159:
Lithuania is a small country with a
Page 160 and 161:
Another tendency is that newspapers
Page 162 and 163:
Only in 2003, the daily newspaper L
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
October 22 2003 was an historic dat
Page 168 and 169:
5.7.2 Survey ResultsSince the end <
Page 170 and 171:
y a mostly anonymous to the general
Page 172 and 173:
On a daily, practical basis there
Page 174 and 175:
Newspaper reach (%)All Adults 15Sou
Page 176 and 177:
so-called “human interest” stor
Page 178 and 179:
indicated that Rodipet applies a di
Page 180 and 181:
5.8.2 Survey ResultsAlthough a smal
Page 182 and 183:
12345Objectivity (%) Fig. 57,114,32
Page 184 and 185:
Strengthening of d
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
emerging CEE countries with regard
Page 190 and 191:
- Create in all OSCE participating
Page 193 and 194:
Organization for Security and Co-op
Page 195 and 196:
1. In which country are you working
Page 197 and 198:
17. Who defines the editorial line
Page 199 and 200:
29. How would you describe the situ
Page 201 and 202:
- This common code of</stro
Page 203 and 204:
Personal and business interestsIt i
Page 205:
Orkla Media’s
Page 208:
www.osce.org/fomJohannes von Dohnan
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