External pluralism protection in five EU countries and the U.S.: the regulatory authorities' views

The protection of pluralism in a cross-media scenario is a major concern for regulatory authorities in all democratic countries. This paper presents the outcome of in-depth interviews with members of six independent audiovisual regulatory authorities. They were questioned about the assessment of measures being taken to protect external pluralism in their respective countries, and about the problems and shortcomings they encounter during their implementation. In spite of the difficulties that arise when trying to compare different national realities and to gather qualitative data from legal bodies, this paper draws several conclusions on current policy trends for the protection of pluralism.This paper is part of the research project “Pluralism and communication groups in Spain: audience concentration”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (National RD&I Plan 2009-2011). The first part of the study analyses to what extent and in which way several European countries and the U.S. have set limits on audience reach/concentration as a communication policy instrument aimed at protecting pluralism in a cross-media scenario