08/01/2003

The impact that communications technology has had on society in general cannot be disputed. In July 1969, more than a billion television viewers watched Neil Armstrong make a thousand year old dream come true when he walked on the surface of the moon. On September 11 2001, billions of stunned viewers watched in disbelief as the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre in New York crumbled before their eyes on live TV.
The increase in the use of digital technology, the growth of the multimedia and the Internet boom have shattered the established order in the world of telecommunications. These factors have combined to provide multilateral passive communication and have lead to the consolidation of interactive bilateral communication and broadcasting. Broadcasting has become interactive and telecommunications have been opened up to multilateral exchanges. This situation, in turn, has created a new social, political and economic order – the Information Society. It is now a major priority for public authorities, TV production companies and industrial companies alike to be able to forecast the shape of things to come in this new society, so that they can develop a suitable framework for working within it. In order to prepare for the future, however, it is necessary to cast an eye over the path which the television phenomenon has taken in the past.

In Europe and the USA, the development of broadcasting between the two World Wars took place within different legal frameworks. In Europe, public and private radio stations existed side by side in a competitive environment – with the exception of countries under totalitarian regimes. These regimes had quickly come to understand how useful radio was as an instrument of propaganda. In the United States, radio broadcasting was governed by the commercial sector: this was due to the application of the First Amendment to the Constitution(1). The commercial sector would not have allowed the public authorities to regulate broadcasting if two other factors had not arisen. These factors were: the technical restrictions relating to the necessity of managing radio frequencies and the antitrust legislation embodied in the Sherman Act(2), which guaranteed that the market would operate correctly and in the interests of both production companies and consumers. As a result of this legislation, the regulating authority (the Federal Commission for Communication) was responsible for licensing radio stations and regulating the technical aspects of broadcasting. It was also responsible for implementing measures with regard to pluralism, market flow and the respect of personal rights.
After the Second World War the majority of Europe needed rebuilding. Radio networks had been used by the occupying forces for propaganda, and now many of them were nationalised in order to respond to economic and political requirements(3). With the exception of Great Britain, the public broadcasting monopolies which were set up at this time – and within which television broadcasting was to develop – were to last until the 1980s. These monopolies were to evolve under the combined effect of social, economic and political changes as well as the demands imposed in terms of pluralism of information. European Union member countries were to gradually adapt the structure and funding of their radio and television networks on the basis of a variety of factors. In Great Britain and France the deciding factor was political choice; in Italy, Germany and Spain it was the decisions taken within the framework of constitutional law, while in Belgium and Scandinavia it was market pressure.

1 - To the effect that Congress could not implement any law with regard to the foundation of a religion or the free practice of such a religion, nor could it implement any law which would result in the restriction of the freedom of speech or of the press or which would impinge upon the right of American citizens to gather peacefully and to petition the Government to redress their grievances.

2 - In 1968 the Supreme Court delivered the “Red Lion” judgement, which confirmed that the Sherman Act had been legitimately applied to the media. The judgement stated that the Supreme Court had decided that the First Amendment was intended as a means of maintaining a free market in terms of publicising the truth and protecting freedom of speech. Thus, the Supreme Court decided that access to the media should be facilitated in order to protect the interests of the public in general as well as the rights of individuals, particularly those of minorities.

3 - Commercial radio was not nationalised in either Spain or Portugal, which had not been occupied during the Second World War.