Activity Details (ID# 20704)

Activity Synopsis

To promote accession to the European Convention on transfrontier television by making a presentation and participating in the 9th meeting of the mediterranean network of regulatory authorities which was hosted by the Moroccan authority of audiovisual communication (HACA) in Marrakech
To gather information about the development of regulatory authorities in countries around the Mediterranenan. 

The participants shared experiences on the following issues:
- Ethics, protection of minors and self-regulation
- Convergence of regulators
- Political pluralism in the audio-visual media
-Satellite contents regulation
- Organisation of the network and new adhesions

The CoE secretariat (MIS-division) made also a presentation on ''the future of the European Convention on transfrontier television'' allowing participants to understand the contents and application of the Convention, including the main lines of its current revision, while understanding the importance for countries, including non-member states of the Council of Europe to ratify the convention.

The participants also considered a ''draft declaration on content regulation'' by the Network and agreed that members of the network would be given the oppportunity to send in further comments. This declaration is an interesting example of self-regulation.

The regulatory authorities of the following 3 countries were accepted as members of the network: Jordania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Mauretania

The discussions made it clear that regulatory authorities of certain non-member States of the CoE (in particular Morocco, Jordania and Mauretania) make significant efforts to share common standards and best practices with their European colleagues. The representatives of the countries concerned have been given information about CoE standards in fields of relevance to their work. 

Contacts between the CoE secretariat and regulatory authorities, in particular networks such as the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities and the Mediterranean network will remain essential for the proper development and application of CoE norms with regard to freedom of expression, content regulation and transfrontier access to information. The next annual meeting of the Network will take place in Italy. 

Representatives of the regulatory authorities from Albania, Cyprus, Spain (Andalucia and Cataluna) France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Serbia, Turkey (Members of the network) and, as observers, regulators of the Palestinian authority, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Egypt, Jordania, Lebanon, Mauritania, Tunesia. Were also represented: the European platform of regulatory authorities (EPRA), the African Network of Regulators (RIARC) 

Anita van de Kar (Secretary to the Standing Committee on transfrontier television, MIS, DG-HL)
Wolfgang Closs (Directeur exécutif de lObservatoire européen de l'audiovisuel)