Opening session: “Overview of recent trends and policy developments relating to media pluralism at national and European level” Pan‐European Forum on Media Pluralism and New Media

1. Speech Ingrid Lieten, 27 June 2012
Pan‐European Forum on Media Pluralism
and New Media
Opening session: “Overview of recent trends and policy developments
relating to media pluralism at national and European level”
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear guests,
I consider it a privilege to address you at this pan‐European conference
on media pluralism and new media. I would like to congratulate the
organisers for taking the initiative to realize such a large‐scale event in
such a unique location.
During the next ten minutes I will give you some background to the
Flemish media landscape. After that, I will briefly discuss the Flemish
policy accents and efforts regarding media pluralism. I will also describe
to you how Flanders monitors pluralism and responds to it in terms of
policy.
First of all, I wish to point out that Flanders has a fairly pluralistic media
landscape. Currently, media companies, such as Roularta, Corelio, De
Persgroep, Concentra and the public broadcasting company VRT, work
with an integrated model: They are oriented towards the printed media
through the publication of newspapers and magazines, as well as towards
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2. radio through the operation of national radio broadcasters, and towards
television through the operation of national commercial TV stations and
smaller niche broadcasters. When looking at the shareholder structures
behind these different companies, we find that there is no
monopolisation in Flanders. In the field of television, we not only notice a
distinction between the public broadcaster and the commercial players,
there are also differences between the commercial broadcasters, such as
VMMa and the new SBS Belgium.
One way to gain insight into media pluralism, is to map out the balances
of power and the broadcasting structures. In Flanders, this is the
responsibility of the Flemish Media Regulator, an autonomous body
which not only monitors compliance with media laws in Flanders, but is
also assigned to monitor the concentration in the audiovisual and written
media. Information about ownership structures, financial results, public
outreach, revenues from advertising and so on, is collected in a database
which is mainly intended for internal use. This information allows for
reports to be generated on a regular basis or in reply to ad hoc questions.
In order to be able to develop an efficient policy for guarding the quality,
pluralism and independence of the media, it is important to know where
journalism stands today, and how it evolves with respect to the changes
in the media landscape. These days, many actors in the press and
journalism feel the pressure of competition and commercialisation. In
principle, this could entail a number of risks, such as an entwining of
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3. editorial and commercial contents. Fortunately, at present this mostly
remains mere theory in Flanders. Nevertheless, as Minister for Media in
Flanders, I would like to supply the sector itself with a range of
instruments to allow it to act in the first instance in a self‐regulating
manner.
Since 2003, the Electronic News Archive or ENA has been archiving,
opening up and annotating all the main news broadcasts of the VRT and
VTM broadcasters. The ENA puts this information at the disposal of
scientific researchers and policy makers. Apart from that, the ENA itself
performs scientific research into TV news. Since 2010, the ENA has
regularly drawn up a News Monitor. This scientific report analyses the
media attention for a topical issue in the Flemish television news
broadcasts of Eén, a channel of the public broadcasting company, and the
commercial channel VTM. Another research item is for example the
people who are given time to speak. In 2011, for instance, women were
allotted only 22 percent of the total speaking time during Flemish
television news broadcasts. Between 2003 and 2010 the foreign news
coverage in Flemish TV news broadcasts declined by 10 percent.
However, new figures that were published late May show that foreign
news coverage is enjoying a revival. Whether this is a real turning point or
a temporary improvement remains to be seen. These findings of the
ENA's News Monitor have led to fascinating debates within the sector.
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4. And that is exactly what I strive for: great debates about media quality,
diversity, pluralism and ethics. At the beginning of this year I took the
initiative for the establishment of a new Centre of Expertise on Media,
into which ENA has been incorporated. This Centre is a new partner
within the media sector which will ensure that an exchange of thoughts
is initiated about this type of findings. The Centre of Expertise is a
consortium of research groups from the University of Antwerp, the
Catholic University of Leuven, Ghent University and the VUB. The mission
of this Centre of Expertise on Media is twofold: To ensure an objective,
scientific and methodologically justified monitoring of media content,
with emphasis being placed on news media. And to play a role in the
monitoring of media use and media literacy. Systematic media monitoring
not only includes a quantitative analysis, but should also focus on a
qualitative analysis of media content. The way in which the press
approach victims is for example also part of this monitoring. The research
results can in this case be used for reflection and discussion with the
sector on ethics in journalism.
As such the Centre of Expertise may reduce the gap between scientific
research and the media landscape. The Centre should also indicate
whether and when policy makers are advised to take measures or give
incentives to promote the quality of journalism. It should devote
attention to both short and long term scientific research. In the short
term it should be possible to carry out ad hoc research which reflects the
policy or the self‐regulation in the sector. In the long term it is important
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5. to archive and annotate news items, so as to create an extensive archive
into which longitudinal research can be performed to detect certain
trends and evolutions.
Allow me to also briefly touch upon a few examples of specific policy
actions around pluralism and media:
Media quality is an objective which I aim to realise by giving support to
investigative journalism, among other things. To this end, Flanders has
the Pascal Decroos Fund at its disposal. This Fund, which receives 300.000
euros in financial aid from the Government of Flanders, grants
scholarships for journalistic projects which would otherwise experience
difficulty in finding their way to the media, such as investigative
journalism or foreign news coverage.
I also give support to journalism projects which are complementary to
traditional media. For example: an online news lab which supervises and
interprets the working of the media and journalism, a press agency run by
youngsters, and a fact checker at a website for citizen journalism.
The regional broadcasters in Flanders, which provide information about a
smaller area of Flanders within their limited area of transmission, also
guarantee a diverse television landscape in Flanders and receive
government funding. They indeed have a unique position to deliver
information and bring citizens and government closer together at the
local and regional level.
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6. Reading promotion is another important aspect of my policy: through the
Newspapers in Classrooms project, for instance, I make sure that
newspapers are made freely available to pupils. That way young people
get in touch with the broad diversity of newspapers available. Which is
quite important considering unknown is unloved.
Obtaining more diversity is one of the main objectives of my policy
regarding media. That is why I launched a call for project proposals in
2011, for which we provided 700.000 euros. This call has the goal to
stimulate the media sector to create more diversity amongst their
employees, in the output and in their reach. Diversity means more than
having an interest for ethnic‐cultural minorities, diversity is also about
attention for gender, sexual identity, disability, age and socio‐economic
differences. Media have an important role to play in sculpturing an
accurate perception of our society and its composition.
With some pride I would also like to draw attention to the strong audio‐
visual production sector in Flanders. The Media Fund, for which I am
competent as Minister for Media, together with the broadcasting
companies invests in high‐quality Flemish productions. Various Flemish
television programmes already won European and international awards,
and during these past years more and more Flemish TV advertisers have
been among the winners on the international scene for their original and
creative ideas.
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7. I hope I have sufficiently illustrated to you through the aforementioned
examples that, together with my colleagues in the Government of
Flanders, I am ambitiously and through targeted actions pursuing
pluralism in existing and, by extension, new media.
I thank you for your attention and wish you an inspiring day.
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