PLURALISM AND MEDIA CONCENTRATION IN EUROPE - MEDIA POLICY AS INDUSTRIAL-POLICY

Sustained efforts to place the issue of audiovisual regulation, notabl y the safeguarding of pluralism and pluriform freedom of information, on the European Community (EC) agenda and to produce a policy acceptab le to the general interest, have not come to fruition. Pluralism and d iversely sourced media are on the decline, whereas concentration of me dia ownership and consolidation are increasing. The current lack of co rrespondences between the scope of audiovisual activity and the scope of its regulation create wider problems of legitimacy in the European Union (EU). Civil, economic and national interests are jeopardized by the EC's effective non-policy-making on this crucial issue. 'Minimum h armonization', the Cassis de Dijon principle and the Single Market fra mework combine to prevent the protection of content pluralism through media regulation. A way out of this policy paralysis seems unlikely gi ven the present inadequate and weak policy and institutional structure s of the intergovernmental policy actor, for behind the non-policy opt ion stand powerful economic and national forces.