Alessandro Mattiacci - fotolia.de
- Regulation of media intermediaries
Media intermediaries such as search engines, social media and video portals mediate content between content providers and users. They therefore have a decisive influence on the diversity of opinions and offerings and can strongly influence how opinions are formed. They must therefore follow rules on transparency and anti-discrimination. - Regulation of platforms and user interfaces
Media platforms and user interfaces are the bottleneck through which media offerings must pass in order to be recognised. The media authorities ensure the transparency of media platforms and user interfaces and guarantee non-discriminatory access to them for journalistic and editorial content providers. They also ensure that their offerings are easy to find on user interfaces. - Public value
Public value - these are all offerings that provide added value for users and are particularly important for shaping public opinion. The media authorities are responsible for determining public value offerings, i.e. all those media offerings that are particularly important for the formation of public opinion. They also ensure that people can easily find these media offerings on user interfaces. - Media concentration monitoring
Media concentration monitoring aims to ensure a diversity of independent providers of media content. The media authorities prevent the development of dominant opinion power in the private television market. - Technology and innovation
The media authorities monitor and support technical innovations and digitalisation as well as their consequences for media diversity and opinion-forming - for example with workshops, industry discussions, expert opinions and studies. - Licensing
Anyone wishing to organise private broadcasting programmes generally requires a licence under media law. The media authorities issue these licences and allocate transmission channels.
- Journalistic standards
The media authorities monitor compliance with journalistic standards and obligations in private broadcasting and in telemedia offering journalistic content. - Protection of minors in the media
The media authorities are responsible for the protection of children and young people in the media by legally controlling potentially harmful media content and promoting media literacy. - Accessibility
The media authorities create transparency about accessibility in the media and thus ensure that opportunities for media participation increase. - Monitoring of Advertising
The media authorities prosecute violations of media law advertising regulations in broadcasting and telemedia. - Imprint obligations
The media authorities monitor compliance with the statutory imprint obligations on the Internet. - Supervision of prize games
The media authorities monitor compliance with the rules for prize games in private broadcasting, the Internet and social media.
- Promotion of community media
The media authorities promote community media and local media offerings in many federal states. - Promotion of media literacy
In most federal states, the media authorities promote media literacy and teach responsible media use.
- European media regulation
The media authorities are involved in European media regulation through positioning and international co-operation. - Research
Through their own studies and research programs, the media authorities observe and monitor trends in media usage behaviour, media markets and the opinion-forming process that are relevant to regulation.
What is the legal basis for the media authorities‘ work?
The media authorities always work with a legal mandate. This mandate is primarily derived from the Interstate Media Treaty (MStV), the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media (JMStV) and the 14 state media laws. In addition, statutes are issued that concretise these legal bases where necessary, for example in the regulation of media platforms or intermediaries.
The internal cooperation of the individual state media authorities in committees and commissions is regulated in the ALM statute.
