European media governance: the EU and the Council of Europe

The legal basis for the development of institutional frameworks of media governance within the EU and the Council of Europe is discussed, and the prevailing theory of negative, market-driven integration is questioned. The main legal instruments and phases of EU and Council of Europe media governance are described. The interplay between EU and Council of Europe standards, together with the development of complex multi-levelled co-regulatory governance institutions leaves room for positive interventions to support public interested media but raises challenges for legitimacy and subsidiarity given the enduring weakness of legal competence for transnational institutions such as the EU and the Council of Europe.