With an increasing number of news platforms and organisations providing various forms of news services, and the constant re-cycling of news (and opinions), the issues of what constitutes an appropriate regulatory environment (or even if there is to be one at all) is constantly being discussed and debated. Views span the advocates of self-regulation to those who prefer legally imposed forms of compliance. Both sets of views claim to promote and protect the civil role of the factual mass media though there is little in the way of agreement as to what exactly that civil role is and the extent to which the factual mass media should be free from political and market considerations. Attendant upon these regulatory and legal issues are matters of how we provide for the conditions for a trustworthy news media to establish and sustain itself, often envisaged as public service or public interest media. Specifically, that means providing conditions whereby what we value and recognise as editorial integrity is indeed protected and promoted, that the standards we hold editorial comment to are sustained, and where they are not, forms of redress (complaint and correction) are available to us.

Currently funded research projects:

  • ‘Examining the Impact of IPSO on Editorial Standards and Complaints Handling’ for the press regulator in the UK (Independent Press Standards Organisation – IPSO) (2017-18).

 

Research Publications

  • Harrison, J. (2011), The Development of a European Civil Society through EU Public Service Communication in Papathanassopoulos, S. and Negrine, R. (eds.), Towards a Theory of Communication Policy, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Harrison, J. and Woods, L. (2007), European Broadcasting Law and Policy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Harrison, J. and Wessels, B. (2005), ‘A New Public Service Communication Environment? Public Service Broadcasting Values in the Reconfiguring Media’, New Media and Society, 7(6): 861-880.
  • Katsirea, I. (2018), ‘Search engines and press archives between memory and oblivion’, European Public Law, 125-146
  • Katsirea, I. (2017), ‘Newspaper websites as audiovisual media services: The New Media Online GmbH preliminary ruling’, European Law Review, 92-100
  • Katsirea, I. (2016), Press Regulation in an Era of Convergence, guest editor, special section of  Convergence, 22 (5)
  • Katsirea, I. (2015), ‘Press regulation in an era of convergence: An introduction’, Convergence, 22 (5), 463
  • Katsirea, I. (2015) ‘Electronic Press: “Press-like” or “television-like”?’ International Journal of Law and Information Technology, 23(2), 134-156.
  • Katsirea, I. (2012), ‘Commercial influences on programme content: The German and UK approaches to transposing the EU rules on product placement’ (together with T. Gibbons), Journal of Media Law, 4 (2), 159-188.
  • Katsirea, I. (2012), Broadcasting in an Age of Commercialism, guest editor, special issue of Journal of Media Law, 4 (2) 
  • Katsirea, I., (2012), ‘Who is Afraid of Public Service Broadcasting? The Digital Future of an Age-Old Institution under Threat’, 31 Yearbook of European Law, 416-451
  • Katsirea, I. (2011),  ‘The three-step test. Three steps forwards or backwards for public service broadcasting in Germany?’ in K. Donders and H. Moe (eds), Exporting the Public Value Test: Views from Academia and Practioners (Göteborg, Nordicom), 59-67.
  • Katsirea, I. (2009), ‘Judicial Review of Party Broadcasts in Germany and the United Kingdom’, Journal of Media Law, 1 (2), 269-287
  • Katsirea, I. (2008), Public Broadcasting and European Law. A Comparative Examination of Public Service Obligations in Six Member States (Boston, Kluwer), xxxii + 444 pp