Television and politcs: Spain and France

Abstract

The television has turned into the center of the reflections of the contemporary societies due to its presence and power. The political class from different countries has elaborated a series of documents that offer solutions to the problems raised by the use of the television. The Council of Europe in 1986 suggested in the document «The future of public service broadcasting» that the television had to serve for the democratic and cultural development of the Europeans. The French Senate elaborated another document («L'entrée dans the société of l'information») in 1996 in which it was warned that the television did not have to be ruled only by the market and that it had to be controlled for the state. The Spanish government entrusted a report («Informe para la reforma de los medios de comunicación de titularidad del estado») to several intellectual for the restructuring of the public audio-visual sector. The most important conclusion consists of the fact that the purpose of this sector is the public service that must not be measured up exclusively for the economic profit..