Canada

EBU's Contribution to the G7 Meeting on the Broadcasters' Role in the Information Society

IRIS 1995-3:1/2

Ad van Loon

European Audiovisual Observatory

In a statement dated 20 February 1995, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has made a contribution to the G7 meeting on the information society. The statement, titled "Broadcasters' role in the information society", expresses the views of the national broadcasters which are members of the EBU, on the development of the information society. The EBU inter alia points out that the cultural, political and social dimensions of the information society must not take second place to the technological and economic aspects of the electronic superhighways. According to the EBU, a purely market driven information society, is likely to lead to negative consequences in regards to greater media concentration and loss of cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe. Public service broadcasting is said to be the best institutional safeguard to counterbalance aberrations caused by a commercially driven information society, on the condition that it is able to evolve. According to the EBU, public service broadcasters will be among the first to use new transmission standards such as DAB and DVB and the new digital technology, which will not only lead to an improvement in the quality of transmissions, but will also offer new complementary services.