Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-18-Speech-1-069"
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"en.20021118.4.1-069"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, media freedom and independence do not go well with accumulated economic power, not to mention monopolies. This is especially true when one is dealing with political power wielded by a head of government. The name to mention here is Berlusconi. The Italian media tycoon and, in one and the same person, prime minister, along with Mr Murdoch and Herr Kirch, have given the champions of unfettered press freedom a lesson in fear.
That the Kirch empire has collapsed can be of little comfort in view of the pressure exerted on public service broadcasters by commercial enterprises – I am referring to the cost of rights to sporting events among other things – and in view of an increasing concentration of regional, national and worldwide media with growing cross-border involvements. Media concentration to an illicit degree endangers diversity and pluralism of opinion and the promotion of cultural diversity. Volume 44 of ‘Media Research’ a series of treatises published by the North Rhine-Westphalia Media Institute, has come out in the last couple of days; it gives a powerful description of media concentration's adverse effects on society's democratic and cultural foundations. It also has to be said without equivocation that the rule of law in Italy is in danger. It has already had the worst of the fight. All this leads to only one conclusion, namely that European regulations are needed to limit concentration in the media, because national law does not apply outside the borders of states, or also because – as in Italy – the effort is not even being made. Reference has already been made to the way the Italian State President's profound concern has led him to call for an Italian law to deprive the prime minister of practical political control over the services of the public-sector broadcaster RAI, and to restrict his power as a private individual over the media. Berlusconi is in every respect a special case, and one that it must be hoped will remain unique, involving an array of legal actions relating to tax evasion, forged documents, perjury, payments from slush funds, the bribing of judges and similar things, not all of which have been brought to a conclusion. We therefore call on the Convention to impose a constitutional ban on any such agglomeration of power, which is positively indecent. Even the Pope – or so we have heard – is advocating regulations to safeguard pluralism and freedom of opinion.
That, Mr Prodi, Commissioners, is why I say it is now time for you to take some action!"@en1
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