Study Of The Legal Regulation Of The Broadcast Tv Industry

The economic-oriented legal reform mode decides that the pace ofreform and reconstruction for the definite legal system isdepended upon its connection with relative economic activities. Atpresent, the media law, including the broadcast law of course, isregarded as less economic elements involved, which leads to theunder-developed media law. The author believes that the lesseconomic character of media law should be attributed to thefactitious reason. When China began to transform from centralplanning economy to market economy, the necessity ofbroadcasting business information through the media and thesystem of allocating resources by market mechanism force thedramatic changes of media industry. When the media become oneelement of market, the government shall have to resort to law if ithope remains its influence instead of administrative orders. Suchchanges create the opportunities for media law to furtherdevelopment.Broadcasting industry dominates the media industry and plays avital role and has vast influence upon the whole society.Meanwhile, the broadcasting industry is confronted with thesevere challenges from western countries. Even more dangerous,the whole broadcasting industry in China almost losses its voicesin the international community. The current supervision system onChina's broadcasting industry is still derived from the centralplanning era. Under this system, the efficient governmentsupervision and reasonable corporate governance is just anillusion. With the confirmation of market economy and China'saccession to WTO, it is required that the administrativesupervision on the broadcasting industry be established on thebase of efficient legal system. Therefore, the mature and fruitfulexperiences over the broadcast supervision in western countriesare very important and useful for China's own industry.In the Chapter 1 of this thesis, the author gives a thorough andin-depth study on broadcast industry from the legal angle. Thepurpose of this chapter is to treat the broadcast industry as subjectmatter of legal study, rather than to separate it from the law. In theChapter 2, all categories of broadcast system in the world arediscussed and analyzed one after another. As one of the most, #174important achievement in the 20th century, the prevalence ofbroadcast throughout the world makes it vital to compare andstudy all types of system for the further development. This thesisis then bold enough to try to answer the difference betweenChinese system and western countries' ones: the totally differenteconomic foundation decided the different broadcast system.How to supervise the industry through the law methodology is thecore issue in every country's broadcasting industry regulation. Justlike the economic reforms in China, it is necessary to set aside theargument over ownership and to have an in-depth study on thewestern countries' experiences. In the 3rd Chapter of this thesis, theauthor firstly introduces and analyzes the broadcasting industryregulation system in advanced countries, especially in the UnitedStates of America, Japan and western European countries.Although these systems in these three countries/areas all derivesfrom advanced market economies, they represent three types ofregulation system in the world. Before the author expounds on hisconclusions, he compares these systems and try to demonstrate alltheir respective advantages and shortcomings. In the 4th Chapter, itis clearly put forward by the author what constitutes the definitegoals and route of regulation reform in China's broadcastingindustry. The author believes the goal is to establish a law-oriented, #175regulation and supervision system in China's broadcastingindustry to substitute the policy-oriented one. Clearly definedrights and obligations must be stipulated in the relevant laws.Meanwhile, the author put forward the bases of broadcastingsupervision, namely, to enact the Broadcasting Law of China. Inthis part, it is discussed in detail in the following aspects: the nameof the law, regulation and supervision methodology, the way toencourage and protect fair competition, the procedures andrequirements of founding a broadcasting station, public interestsand consumer protection, self-regulation and remedies.Thereafter, a basic and very important issue for broadcastingindustry is expounded: how to define and then protect publicinterests. To give a definition of public interests in broadcastingindustry is the prerequisite on which the issue of public interestsprotection could be meaningful. First of all, public interestsprovide the legal basis for government to intervene and regulatethe industry. And the goal of regulation or supervision is toconciliate the public interests. However, the regulation orsupervision is not carried out purely or entirely relying on publicinterests. Many other interests, which may contradicts to eachother, play more important role in broadcasting industrysupervision., #176In the last part of this thesis, the regulation system on the mainbody and the collectivization tendency of broadcasting industry inChina is discussed and expounded in-depth. As a producer ofspiritual products, the broadcasting enterprise demonstrates someunique characteristics, which mixes ideology and industrytogether. The regulation or supervision shall have to giveattentions to two of them at the same time. Lastly, the authordiscusses the legal character of broadcasting industrycollectivization.