Public television in the light of European audiovisual policy

Beata Ociepka

The text presents the impact, European institutions have on public television funetioning, The situation of public broadcasters is strongly influenced by commercialisation and deregulation as well as by the increasing politicisation of the media, The mentioned processes can be easily observed in the countries of Central Europę, which implemented the Western model of public media in the nineties, The article shows the main problems and indicators of public broadcasters' situation and in consequence on the role the integrating institutions in Europę play in supporting public media. The particular was laid by the author on the importance of European Union and Council of Europę, showing which documents and activities of these integrating institutions might uphold the pacesetters position of public media in media systems. The decisions of European Union in last years might suggest that European institutions have been changing its attitude towards public broadcasters that have not been seen any morę as simply the profitable part of European audiovisual market but also as a constituting factor of European model of democracy.

KEYWORDS

public broadcasters, television? European integration, European audiovisual policy