Skopje 8 August 2018 – A study was prepared for the needs of the Agency for Audio ad Audiovisual Media Services, with expert assistance from the Council of Europe, titled “Regulatory Framework for Media and Online Media – Macedonian Case Study”.
The study makes a comparative analysis of the EU member states’ legislations concerning online media, their definition and regulation, and offers recommendations for possible amending and supplementing of the existing legal framework.
The analysis indicates that, in the EU member states, the material scope of the regulatory framework concerning the media is limited to audiovisual media services, as defined by the AVMS Directive, due to which it does not cover online media – these are mainly not audiovisual. Nevertheless, in several countries, as stated in the study, one can find definitions about the online media (or electronic media or similar concepts), either in their laws on audiovisual media services or, more often, in concrete laws on the media.
“These definitions are sometimes accompanied with minimal administrative obligations, such as enrollment in a public register, but this does not imply by any means that there is some form of regulation of the contents, similar to that imposed on the providers of audiovisual media services”, states the study.
The study is available in Macedonian and in English, and will soon be translated into Albanian.