The existing European framework in the field of information and communication faces fundamental challenges in light of structural changes of media services and media use. Based on its
academic research accompanying the Media Conference during the German EU Council Presidency, the digital focus session of the HBI will highlight these challenges and incoherencies of the current EU media order. From this starting point, visions of a more coherent and sustainable EU communication order will be developed and discussed. The central question is whether and where there is a need for more extensive regulation and to what extent existing regulatory concepts can be better tailored to meet the new challenges.
Focus Session "Visions of a Coherent EU Information and Media Order"
When: Sept. 8th, 2020 11:00 until 12:30 AM
Registration: You can use this form to register for the kick-off event, the closing event and each of the five focus sessions. The number of participants for the focus sessions is limited.
Policy paper: Visions of a Coherent EU Information and Media Order. Policy Paper by Prof Dr. Wolfgang Schulz and Dr. Stephan Dreyer for the Focus Session I on 8 September 2020 within Germany’s EU Council Presidency | Digital Conference Series „Pluralism and Responsibility. Media in the Digital Society“
Mapping report: Stephan Dreyer / Rike Heyer / Theresa Josephine Seipp / Wolfgang Schulz (2020):
The European Communication (Dis)Order. Mapping the media-relevant European legislative acts and identification of dependencies, interface areas and conflicts. Hamburg: Verlag Hans-Bredow-Institut, June 2020 (
Working Papers of the HBI No. 52).
In the first part, following an impulse from the European Commission, the results of the scientific analyses and stakeholder surveys from early 2020 will be presented, which deal in particular with contradictions, overlaps, and areas of increased legal uncertainty in current media regulation.
Based on these results, HBI will present a policy paper in the second part that sets out possible future paths for a more coherent EU media regulation at the levels of substantive and procedural law as well as fundamental rights.
In the third part, the ideas and proposals presented will be discussed with experts from governance research as well as with the participants.
Agenda
11:00 am – Welcome by the moderator
Monika Jones and introduction by
Wolfgang Schulz (HBI)
11:10 am – „Current challenges for EU Media Policies“, impulse by
Anthony Whelan, Digital Policy Adviser, Cabinet von der Leyen / Q&A
11:25 am – Presentation of the results of the accompanying scientific research by
Wolfgang Schulz (HBI)
11:35 am – Presentation of the results of the stakeholder surveys by and with
Grothe Medienberatung / Q&A
11:45 am –
Monika Jones in conversation with
Wolfgang Schulz (HBI) about the key points of the HBI Policy Paper
11:55 am – Short, interactive panel discussions with
Sarah Broughton Micova (University of East Anglia),
Corinne Schweizer (ICML, University of Zurich) and
Wolfgang Schulz (HBI) / Q&A
- Part 1: Substantive law
- Part 2: Procedural options
- Part 3: The role of the EU in regulatory knowledge transfer
12:30 pm – End of the Focus Session
Speakers and panelists
Wolfgang Schulz
- Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz is Director of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research │ Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) and holds the chair "Media Law and Public Law including its Theoretical Foundations" at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hamburg. In February 2012 he was also appointed Director of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. His work focuses on the area of communication freedoms, on regulatory problems with regard to media content, questions of the law of new media and the legal foundations of journalistic work, but also on the legal-philosophical foundations of communication freedoms and the effects of changing public spheres on the law. In addition, he has worked on forms of state actions, for example within the framework of concepts such as "regulated self-regulation" or "informational regulation". Many of his works are internationally comparative.
Anthony Whelan
- Anthony Whelan currently works as digital policy adviser in the cabinet (private office) of European Commission President von der Leyen. He was previously the Director for Electronic Communications Networks & Services at the European Commission since 2013, designing and negotiating EU initiatives on topics such as net neutrality, roaming reform, the revision of the telecoms regulatory framework, and the financing of advanced broadband networks. A barrister, he has lectured and researched in public law at Trinity College Dublin and has worked as a lawyer at the European Court of Justice and in the Legal Service of the European Commission. Between 2008 and 2013, he was head of the cabinet of EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes in the competition and digital agenda portfolios.
Grothe Medienberatung, Friederike and Thorsten Grothe
- As an owner-managed agency, Grothe Medienberatung works at the interface of politics, media, digital economy and science and is intensively engaged in digitalization and media convergence. Founded in 2005, the agency has reliable contacts in politics, business and science, many years of experience in strategic communication and public affairs as well as comprehensive expertise in managing complex projects. Grothe Medienberatung works in the dynamic field of media and creative industries as well as the digital economy. Topics include the economic development of these areas as well as the design of the media legal framework, including discussions on platform economics and internet governance. Grothe Medienberatung consists of the partners Dr. Friederike Grothe and Dr. Thorsten Grothe. Clients include well-known private and public media providers from Germany and abroad, infrastructure operators and companies in the digital economy.
Sarah Broughton Micova
- Sarah („Sally“) Broughton Micova is a lecturer in communication policy and politics at the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She teaches courses on politics, media and political communication. Prior to joining UEA, she was an LSE Fellow in Media Governance and Policy and Deputy Director of the LSE Media Policy Project in the Department of Media and Communication, where she received her PhD in December 2013. She remains a Visiting Fellow at the LSE and has also been a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Communications in Skopje, Macedonia, since 2012. Her research focuses on media and communications policy in Europe. She is currently looking into new forms for potential control in communications, with the progression of convergence in technology and services and the rise of competitive authoritarianism. She is also interested in the consequences of convergence and globalization in creative and communications industries, especially in small linguistic media markets and in relation to the cultural and communication rights of national minorities.
Corinne Schweizer
- Dr. Corinne Schweizer is a senior research and teaching associate at the Media and Internet Governance Division of the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich. She conducts research on media and communication policy and governance in the Swiss context and beyond. Between 2013 and 2015, she co-authored four research reports for the Federal Office of Communications in Switzerland on media regulation in western countries. Between 2015 and 2017, she worked as an LSE Fellow at the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2016, she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on public service media organizations as media commons and received her Ph.D. from University of Zurich in 2019 when publishing her dissertation with Nomos.
Papers for Download
The project is funded by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media in the context of Germany's EU Council Presidency 2020.
