Media Policies and Regulatory Practices in a Selected Set of European Countries, the EU and the Council of Europe: The Case of Belgium

Abstract

This article aims to give an introduction to the Belgian media landscape and to Belgian media policy. Differences in language, culture and economy between Belgium’s two main Communities – the Flemish Community and the French Community – explain the division of its public sphere into two different media landscapes. Both the Flemish and the French-language media are characterised by a relatively high degree of concentration. This concentration is somewhat compensated by mechanisms guaranteeing self-regulation and internal or external pluralism. Belgian media policy is characterised by a high degree of freedom granted to the media, especially the written press. Most of the structural and content related rules apply to the audiovisual sector rather than the written press. Media regulations, such as those applying to the audio-visual media, may often differ between the two main Communities, but are always strongly influenced by European regulations.