News&Events

The SEE Digi.TV national public seminar »Local Media Opportunities and Challenges in the Digital Environment« was successfully held in Portorož, on the 30th of May 2012. The event organised by Post and Electronic Communications Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (APEK) was attended by representatives of local and national broadcasters, public administration and academia. The organisers were especially honoured also by the presence of the EPRA Chairman Mr Jean-François Furnémont and EPRA Secretary Ms Emmanuelle Machet.

In the opening speech the APEK Director General Mr Franc Dolenc stressed the importance of local media for media pluralism and diversity and called for greater consideration of options offered by new technologies and modes of media consumption. The SEE Digi.TV Project Manager Ms Tanja Kerševan Smokvina enlightened the attention to the issues of local broadcasters within the project. Due to the digital switchover the local broadcasters have to cope with substantial financial burden and often have to deal with changed market conditions. Mr Damir Hajduk from the Croatian Agency of Electronic Media presented the challenges the Croatian local and regional broadcasting media are facing after the transition to digital terrestrial television and explained the policy measures aimed at their support. Mr Bernard Dubuisson from the Belgian regulator Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel talked about how they address the specificities of local and community media in Belgium, while Mr Marcel Betzel from the Dutch regulator Commissaariat voor de Media comprehensively described the local media market in the Netherlands and the regulatory framework. All presentations attracted a great attention of the participants, which contributed to a very lively and fruitful discussion.