The 20th Plenary Assembly of the Network of Mediterranean Regulatory Authorities (MNRA) was held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, on 22 and 23 November 2018, at the invitation of the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (CAC).
Twenty member authorities from seventeen countries and territories around the Mediterranean were present: the AMA of Albania, the AEM of Croatia, the AEM of Montenegro, the BA of Malta, the CAA of Andalusia, Spain, the CAC of Catalonia, Spain, the CCA of Moldova, the CCSB of Israel, the CNMC of Spain, the CNA of Lebanon, the CRA of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the CRTA of Cyprus, the CSA of France, the ERC of Portugal, the GRA of Gibraltar, the HACA of Morocco, the IMC of Kosovo, the NCRTV of Greece, the REM of Serbia and the RTÜK of Turkey. Nine of them were represented by their presidents. The DG CONNECT of the European Commission, the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Ibero-american Platform of Audiovisual Regulators (PRAI), Redshift also participated in the work.
At the opening of the meeting, the President, Olivier Schrameck, President of the French CSA, handed over the presidency of the network for one year to Roger Loppacher, President of the Catalan CAC.
The work of the Plenary Assembly was structured around two main topical themes for Mediterranean regulators: the regulation in the new digital environment and the future of public service broadcasting, permanent working themes of the network, gender and media, the treatment of the crisis of migrants and refugees and the session devoted to the life of the network.
The topic of regulation in the new digital environment was addressed from a two-prong approach: the revision of the AVMS Directive (session 1) and the user protection in new audiovisual media services, fake news and media literacy (session 2).
A Media Literacy Working Group, chaired by the CAC, has been set up.
The session on the future of public service broadcasting was devoted to the perspectives and missions of public service in the new digital environment (session 3).
With regard to the network’s work, the Gender and Media Working Group presented the first results of the questionnaire on national legal frameworks carried out as part of the ongoing study on the treatment of information on gender violence. The final study will be presented to the 2019 Plenary Assembly.
The HACA reported on the side-event of audiovisual regulators on freedom of communication and gender equality held on 15 March 2018 during the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in which the presidency of the MNRA participated. As a follow-up to the Barcelona Declaration on the treatment of information on the crisis of Mediterranean refugees and migrants in the audiovisual media, the CNMC presented the report of the workshop organized on 28 June by the Spanish Vice-Presidency and the guidelines and recommendations resulting from the meeting.
A workshop on the role of African and Mediterranean media and regulators (ACRAN and MNRA) in addressing migration issues will be organized by HACA on 8 December 2018 in Marrakech ahead of the United Nations International Conference on Migration on 10 and 11 December 2018.
The invited PRAI presidency presented the platform’s action plan and possible ways of cooperation with the MNRA.
During the session on the life of the network, the Executive Secretariat presented the national reports of the members gathering information on the current state of audiovisual regulation and their authority.
At the end of the Plenary Assembly, the incoming Vice-Presidency was entrusted for one year to the HACA of Morocco. The HACA will hold the 21st MNRA Plenary Assembly in the fall of 2019. The outgoing Vice-Presidency will be assumed by the French CSA.