Transcript ` Concentration of Ownership Prepared by Michael Karanicolas Legal Officer Centre for Law and Democracy.

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Concentration of Ownership
Prepared by Michael Karanicolas
Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
Dangers of Concentrated Ownership
• Undermines diversity of content
• Reduces local flavour of media
• Economies of scale can be harmful to smaller
competitors
• Leads of uniformity of opinions on major issues
• Centralises power
Drafting the Rules
• Rules against overall dominance
• Rules against local dominance, which often operate
on a sliding scale based on market size
• Rules against cross-media dominance
Enforcing the Rules
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Denying or refusing to renew licenses
Preventing mergers
Through broader anti-trust legislation
Forced divestment
Mandates for editorial independence or more
stringent transparency rules can also be applied as
mitigating forces
Restrictions on Foreign Ownership
• Can be legitimate, particularly in poorer countries
where there is a threat of domination by wealthier
outside interests.
• But these must be applied with the public interest in
mind, and in recognition of the positive impact that
foreign investment can play in the media sector.
Thank you for listening!
Michael Karanicolas
[email protected]
@RTI_Law
www.law-democracy.org