Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development
Legal, Financial and Administrative Aspects of Public Service Broadcasting
The meeting on Legal, Financial and Administrative Aspects of Public Service Broadcasting was held from June 26-28,2000 at Grand Plaza Park Royal Hotel, Singapore. It was organized by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) in collaboration with Singapore Broadcasting Authority and with the support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung ( FES).
The meeting was attended by 24 delegates and speakers from Singapore, Germany, Philippines, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Iran, Fiji, Indonesia, Canada, EBU, AMIC and AIBD secretariat. The meeting endorsed the recommendations made at the 2nd International Conference and Europe-Asia-Pacific Dialogue on Public Service Broadcasting in the Philippines. The meeting also took note of the fact that a lot of work needs to be done in updating policy makers and drawing their attention to the idea and concept of Public Service Broadcasting. The meeting came up with the following recommendations.
1. AIBD is requested to continue its endeavors to publicize the idea and concept of PSB in the region.
2. AIBD is requested to publicise the idea of PSB to all countries in the region by conducting an in-country meeting/seminar in each country to which in-country host will invite policy makers, politicians, practitioners and academics. The speakers at this seminar could be invited from outside the country
3. The social, cultural and economic situation is different in each country The meeting felt that possibly, it would be appropriate if member countries are provided with complete information and background. As for the draft model on legal, financial and administrative aspects PSB, it seems that, this has to be redrafted and the following should be taken into account.
- Philosophical Overview on Public Service Broadcasting
- Creation of systems (Public & Private)
- Regulatory mechanism to system- Technical and Content
- Public Broadcaster Objectives and definition (Structure of organization)
- Three potential and practical models for ministers and policy makers to consider viz. NHK, EU and Canada supported with diagrammatic Representations of country system of broadcasting and broadcasting system
4. The abovementioned models don't contain information about the transformation from state-run broadcasting organization to public service broadcasting organizations. Therefore, it was further recommended to look for possible examples in the region such as Prasar Bharati in India.
5. The PSB document may be prefaced using EBU definition of Public Service Broadcasting in the EBU document 1( 97) of the EBU legal committee as preamble