SPEECH/05/469 Viviane Reding Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media The Media and Globalisation European Forum Alpbach 31 August 2005
Ladies and Gentlemen, To talk about media and globalisation means, for me, to talk about two of the most dynamic concepts of our modern society. If you like, my speech therefore has to try to meet two constantly moving targets the minute you have thought about them, they have already undergone yet another change. Let me first talk about the media. Some years ago, the media still were a relatively stable concept. We all understood as media our daily newspaper, the usual weekly magazine, and our favourite radio and TV programme, which was broadcast to the general public at the same time via a limited number channels. The media of today are certainly not covered any more by this narrow description. Digitisation, and the availability of the Internet to the general public, have fundamentally changed the way we access and experience media. Media content is becoming available more and more on individual demand, and adapted to individual needs and wishes. There is today a much larger range of information and entertainment content from which users can chose. And we will more and more also chose the means of transportation by which such media content is made available to us. The phenomenon behind is called convergence by experts. It means the merger of communication infrastructures, media content, and electronic devices, which is generating new media services and new modes of delivery. A good example for convergence in practice is the new, third generation of mobile phones that will allow us to access any content, at any time and at any place we like. Globalisation is an even more dynamic concept. It is a worldwide intensive exchange of people, of ideas, of goods, and of capital. An exchange which has the potential of influencing fundamentally all fields of public and private life, and also of changing them. Globalisation is thus far more than only an economic process. It is a process which covers all human relationships and civilisation. And it is certainly the most important challenge our generation is facing. Media and globalisation are closely linked. First of all, the media are one of the means by which we all experience globalisation whether by sending an e-mail to a friend in South East Asia, whether by listening to music from Latin America, whether by watching one of the latest movies from Bollywood in India, or whether by following, in these days, the terrible experiences of the citizens of New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina via the Internet, as the only means of communication which is still available under these circumstances. In this sense, the media are the first messengers of globalisation, and the Internet is the first concrete incorporation of the Global Village about which globalisation experts are always talking. There is a second natural link between globalisation and the media: Globalisation is speeding up the fundamental technological change that we are seeing in the media world, and it allows new ideas and technological innovation to spread around the globe. Globalisation allowed a new TV format such as Pop Idol, invented by British music impresario Simon Fuller, to become the first European TV show format to be successful in other continents and to be adapted as American Idol in the U.S., as Canadian Idol in Canada and as Australian Idol in Australia, only followed quickly afterwards by the Spanish format Operación Triunfo which made its way to Latin and South America. Globalisation also allows a new technological device such as the ipod, to be carried around by young and older people in Shanghai as well as in Innsbruck. Globalisation in this sense opens the world to new ideas and for innovation. It also works as a catalycist that triggers convergence. If digital home cinema is successful in Japan, why should it not be able to succeed also in Europe and elsewhere? 2
I would like to mention a third element from the fruitful interaction between media and globalisation: the possibility to re-activate and re-juvenate, via global media, creativity and intellectual exchange. We all know that only some years ago, media experts were afraid of a future in which our children could become lazy couch potatoes, who would only watch all day, but would not be able to write or read any more. If we see today how much young people are reading and writing again only in the form of e-mails or Short Messages sent via mobile phones, we must admit that our fears have proved wrong. From a purely literaric point of view, we may be critical about the style e-mails can sometimes take or about the abreviations used in Short Messages. However, when taking a closer look, these new forms of writing sometimes can take even poetic forms and are certainly worth the analysis of future linguists. I therefore would argue that globalised media can even be helpful to re-activate skills and capabilities which were threatened in the tradtional media world. If you look at Wikipedia, the new Internet Encyclopaedia to which thousands of voluntary collaborators around the world contribute by writing articles, you can see the first signs of a new encyclopaedist movement in our times. And the quality of this new Internet Encyclopaedia is astonishing, probably due to the numerous contributors and the control of the process of writing by competing peers around the world. If we look at the positive side of media and globalisation, we can thus say that converging media in a globalising world have an enormous potential to bring about more choice and more freedom for our citizens as they do not only lead to a new global market for media products, but also to a new global forum for an exchange of ideas and creativity. Of course, there is also an interaction between the media and globalisation that one could call its dark side. There is probably no new freedom without abuse, and therefore, it comes as no surprise that also globalised media can be and are sometimes abused. The freedom of the Internet can be abused to distribute child pornography around the world. Satellite TV can be abused to circulate hate speech and terrorist propaganda. And electronic commerce can be abused for financial transactions promoting criminal activities around the globe, or for illegal phishing activities on our online bank accounts. This leads me to some thoughts about the response politicians and regulators, and in particular European politicians and regulators, should give to the challenges of media and globalisation. My philosophy in this respect is: We should see media convergence and globalisation as opportunities, and not as threats. I know well that many European citizens are concerned because of possible negative consequences of technological change and globalisation. I understand these worries. However, we will only avoid negative consequences if we prepare Europe for the future of a globalised world, if we make sure that Europe will be a winner of technological change and globalisation, and not a loser. From the point of view of a European politician, I would identify three fields of action towards media convergence in a globalising world: First of all, we have an economic policy task. We must understand that globalisation is about competition on a global market. Also with regard to media. European politicians therefore must make sure that European media companies whether public or private have the capability to compete with their competitors in other parts of the world. Let me be very clear about this: Politicians should, in my view, certainly not seek to create large European media conglomerates with the support of the state. 3
First of all, because it is highly doubtful whether large is always equivalent to successful in business. Secondly, because in particular in the media, both freedom of expression and media pluralism ask for a very careful, forbearing role of public authorities. What European politicians can do is to make sure that European media companies have excellent starting conditions. That they can operate on the basis of the most modern regulatory framework in the world. That technological innovation and artistic creativity are worth the effort in Europe and protected by a modern regime of intellectual property rights. I would therefore see our economic policy role to be much more one of Ordnungspolitik than of public interventionism in the media economy. I have underlined the main principles of this policy in my recent Strategy Document i2010 a European Information Society for Growth and Jobs. And in this sense, I also intend to present, before the end of the year, a proposal for a modern European regulatory framework for Audiovisual Content Without Frontiers, which will create a light-touch environment for all media content services, whether delivered in linear or non-linear form. Secondly, European politicians have without any doubt a public policy task in view of the dark side of globalised media, which I mentioned earlier. We have to prevent the abuse of the media, and enhance in particular a secure online environment for private and commercial activities. We also have a duty to protect our children against clearly harmful content. And we have to protect human dignity, one of Europe s most important fundamental values and rights, against incitement to racial hatred. However, we have to understand that a policy to prevent abuses of global media must never, lead to calling into question the enormous freedoms offered by globalised media, for instance by filtering out certain types of content, as we see it happening in some parts of the world. Freedom of expression and of the media are the pillars of our European democracies. The prohibition of content can therefore take place in extreme cases, as a response of last resort, and under the control of our courts. In most cases, self regulation and co-regulation will be much more efficient and proportionate tools. We had so far one such case in Europe when all European regulators agreed about stopping the transmissions of the satellite programme of Al-Manar, which had been qualified as an extreme case of incitement to racial hatred by the French Highest Administrative Court. Let me thirdly and finally say a word about media, globalisation and cultural diversity, and about the role of politics in this respect. For us Europeans, cultural diversity is our wealth, our heritage. Some politicians see Europe s cultural diversity as a weakness on the global market. This is not my view. For me, Europe s cultural diversity is our strongest asset when facing globalisation. Look at the evolution of TV-programmes. Some time ago we feared that US TV shows would permanently dominate Europe s TV screens. Today, we are witnessing a strong move to regional and local content. Instead of Dynasty or Dallas, European citizens are today watching German, French, Austrian, Polish TV productions and even their own national soap operas. In Europe, the EU s MEDIA programme has supported this development by allowing European audiovisual productions to circulate across the borders. Also the Internet is contributing to this new move to local content and languages: I heard with interest in the past days that Microsoft, for many the symbol of globalisation, has decided to offer Windows now also in the language of several smaller countries, including the language of my home country Luxembourg. And it is certainly no coincidence, but a further sign of this development, that also Wikipedia, the new interactive global Internet encyclopaedia I mentioned before, offers its website in almost all languages of the world, including again Letzeburgisch. 4
It could very well be that the old contradiction felt by many between globalisation and cultural diversity belongs to the past. We certainly do not need quotas on Internet content. We will not achieve cultural diversity by means of regulation, it will impose itself. A company offering media services in Europe without taking account of the cultural diversity would inevitably fail. This is an economic and commercial fact, which is understood more and more by European and Non- European businesses. Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me conclude with the following statement: We should not look at globalisation in the way the rabbit looks to the snake. A state of paralysis is never an ideal starting position if you want to win a race. We Europeans should be aware of our strengths. We should promote these strengths, also in the media sector, and create a regulatory environment that allows European media companies to be successful with their products in Europe and around the globe. And we should further enhance an environment that allows our European citizens to participate in the world-wide inter-cultural exchange of thoughts, ideas and creativity offered by converging media in a globalising world. They have all the potential to bring about a new generation of open-minded, knowledge-seeking multilingual citizens of the world. Our task as politicians is to help them achieve this fascinating goal. 5