Print and Broadcast Media

The most striking difference between broadcast and print media regulation is inequality. Print media are not subject to direct regulatory controls; [however] they are indirectly influenced by cross-media ownership rules. In other democratic countries the principles of press freedom has ensured the development of print media largely unconstrained by regulation. Reasons for the regulatory disparity between broadcast and print are too numerous and too complex to warrant discussion here. Suffice it to say that ambiguous and intangible ideals such as the ‘public interest’; the electromagnetic spectrum as a ‘scarce resources’; and broadcast media as ‘intruders’ in people’s homes are cited as reasons to regulate and control broadcast media.