This new work on media regulation analyses and compares developments and trends across both the telecommunications and the broadcasting sectors in several different states. Using national reports, based on a common template to ensure comparable data, the book examines the ability of the law and other regulatory techniques to influence such a rapidly changing area. It exposes clearly the regulatory choices that are being made to control the so-called 'new media', including the internet, as well as examining the methods used to govern the more conventional media.

The general move in the media to replace industry-specific regulations with competition law, and the extent to which self-regulation is increasingly employed by the various industries and how this is underpinned by statutory support is discussed in depth.

The book looks at the regulatory systems in force in a whole range of countries, from members of the European Union, to Australia and the US, and Eastern Europe. The roles of the various European Institutions in media regulation are also examined. States' approaches to a wide variety of matters are looked at, from recent copyright developments to privacy and election laws The problems and success of these various alternative approaches are then analysed.