The European Union and Media Ownership Transparency: The Scope for Regulatory Intervention

The challenge in relation to a media transparency proposal is to establish a convincing legal and factual basis for European intervention. As an initial contribution to this debate, the present report considers, firstly, the existing regulatory framework at both the Council of Europe and the EU levels and, secondly, whether the EU has competence to propose a measure in this field. The report identifies two main legislative bases for action: the Internal Market and Citizenship. In relation to both of these heads it will be necessary to establish that action is required at the EU, as opposed to Member State, level. In relation to the Internal Market head, it will be necessary to show that there are concrete barriers to the realisation of the Internal Market, which legislation of this type would address. The authors also consider the role that the Agency for Fundamental Rights could play in collating information and stimulating debate on media transparency. They conclude by making several recommendations for further research and possible courses of action that may help to put this issue on the political agenda and, ultimately, lead to an improvement in media transparency across Europe.