INTRODUCTION

Previous chapters have considered values, objectives and some of the mechanisms utilised in regulating the media, and have noted the democratic requirement that power, whether public or private, should not be unlimited. They have not, however, in general focused on the limitations placed upon those who exercise regulatory power. In this chapter, the focus is shifted from predominantly structural regulation of media markets to focus on the activities of the media, and those who regulate them, from the perspective of accountability.

Liberal-democratic expectations such as freedom of expression and property rights may appear generally to have militated against strong regulation of the media in such a way as to override competing democratic claims for pluralism, diversity and equality of access to the media. That said, regulators have undoubtedly exercised, and no doubt in the future will continue to exercise, wide-ranging discretionary powers over the democratically significant media. The examples considered in Chapter 4 appear to suggest, however, that such powers are not always utilised in pursuit of clearly identified objectives.

In the previous edition of this book, criticisms were made of the existing arrangements for a number of regulatory bodies. The Communications Act 2003 hailed a major institutional change as a wide range of regulatory activities relating to the media were brought under the auspices of a new regulatory commission - Ofcom - which now largely exercises regulatory control over both the infrastructure of broadcasting and the content of broadcasts. In addition to Ofcom, there are a number of other bodies which still remain.