FEAR that commercial companies will continue to buy ups major sporting events and popular programmes has forced EU ministers to investigate ways of defending traditional public service broadcasting television.
The cultural and broadcasting ministers, who gathered for an informal meeting in Galway yesterday, requested the European Commission to come up with proposals before the ministers' formal meeting in December.
The 20 ministers and their officials said the clause in the Maastricht Treaty which placed culture Bat the centre of the EU should be used to protect television from those who would use competition law to the advantage of commercial operators.
At the close of the meeting, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, who chaired the meeting, agreed that money was winning" but said the strength of the cultural clause would protect public service broadcasters.
It was a choice between a Europe of consumers or of citizens. He said a clear message had been sent "Pure commercialism cannot be the criterion."
The ministers also welcomed the decision to include the protection of minors in the context of the Internet in the forthcoming Green Paper on audiovisual services.
The Commission's director general responsible for the audio visual industry, Ms Colette Flesch, said there was an urgency about this. Action had, to be taken at a European and international rather than state level, given the nature of the Internet.
Once the Green Paper was adopted, she said, talks would have to be held with the US.
Mr Higgins said that, while a number of things could be done legally in dealing with the new media, a major factor would have, to be education.
Ministers expressed a fear that state aid through licence fees, for instance, could be challenged under competition regulations. However, it was hoped the new emphasis on the cultural importance of the EU would allow state support to continue, so that public service television would not be forced down a narrow alleyway, offering only worthy but minority programming.
The chairman of the RTE Authority, Dr Farrel Corcoran, addressing the ministers, said cultural diversity was a part of public service broadcasting. That ensured a genuine choice of programmes was offered to citizens, including those of a minority interest that might be considered unprofitable.
He said the public service broadcasters provided "a quality benchmark" for popular programmes as well as for innovation and artistic experimentation.
In the US, he said, broadcasting was defined as commercial and was now in the hands of a few corporate owners. "This commercial oligopoly has exerted a downward pressure on programme standards."
Dr Corcoran called for EU objectives which ensured that the greatest number of people benefited from the new audiovisual services, and that Europe did not divide into the information rich and information poor.
Dr Corcoran said that every effort must be made at the political level to encourage the granting of rights to televise major sporting and other spectacular entertainment events so that they are available freely and universally.