The 58th meeting of EPRA (European Platform of Regulatory Authorities) was held in Bucharest
On October 19-20, 2023 the 58th meeting of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA) was held in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
This meeting of EPRA, the most influential network of audiovisual media regulators in Europe, was attended by 140 representatives and experts from 50 authorities, regulating audiovisual broadcasting in 47 European countries, as well as representatives of the European Commission, the Media Division of the Council of Europe, the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media (ERGA) and the European Audiovisual Observatory. The Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan was represented at the meeting by Fazil Novruzov, the Head of the Office of the Council.
The first day of the meeting was dedicated to the current situation of the audiovisual media sector in Romania, general problems existing in the EPRA network, innovations in the member states and relevant reports. Various joint projects with partners of the EPRA platform, the status of their implementation, the current state of the Mediterranean Network of Regulatory Authorities (MNRA), as well as the three-year EPRA's strategy for 2024-2026 were also discussed. At the same time, the updated budget for 2023 and the draft budget for 2024 were discussed and approved.
A plenary session was then held on "Media and information for the public good". The topic included the development of a media market structure that supports ownership transparency, independence and viability of the media. A number of presentations were made.
On the second day of the meeting, a plenary session was held on "Future of content delivery and adapting the regulatory framework to new modes of content delivery". The session was held in a roundtable format. Participants were divided into groups. Representatives of each regulatory authority shared their experiences or future plans on the topic, as well as a common vision of the issue. The plenary session focused on Greece's experience in regulating audiovisual media on the Internet and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of this practice.
The next 59th EPRA meeting will be held in June 2024 in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the city of Rotterdam.
