CIRCOM Regional presented the role of the regional public broadcasters at the European Parliament
Thursday, September 10th 2015 - Three members of the Executive Committee of CIRCOM presented the role of this CIRCOM Regional network at the Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The session was chaired and moderated by the MEPs Jordi Sebastiá and Izaskun Bilbao Barandarica, and CIRCOM was represented by its president, Jean-Marc Dubois, together with the National Coordinators from Poland, Anna Dyda, and Spain, Fernando R. Ojea.
They presented what CIRCOM Regional is and showed a sample of different productions of its members’ regional or minority languages, pointing out the large array of programmes produced in these languages (news, documentaries, entertainment, fiction, etc.).
The main point of the presentation was that without regional public television stations, minority languages were likely to be very sparsely represented on screens. Private operators are neither required to produce programmes in minority languages, nor would these programmes be profitable for them. CIRCOM Regional on the other hand is proud to give exposure to more than 40 minority languages on the continent, while it made clear that these very same programmes are at risk in certain parts of the continent due to financial constraints.
Medley: examples of CIRCOM member stations' programmes in minority languages
There was a general agreement that both CIRCOM and the Intergroup have common interest in the proximity information and in the role of these broadcasters for achieving a diverse and plural democracy in Europe.
CIRCOM asked for recognition and visibility for its members at the European level and proposed that when MEPs discuss about audiovisual they always refer to regional public broadcasters.
During almost an hour and a half, the MEPs asked questions and suggested that this presentation could be the starting point for a more continuous relationship. Following MEPs took part in the meeting: Izaskun BILBAO BARANDICA, Pàl CSÀKY, Andor DELL, Herbert DORFMANN, Andrejs MAMIKINS, József NAGY, Liadh NI RIADA, Bernd POSSELT, Csaba SÓGOR, Josep-Maria TERRICABRAS, Làszló TŐKÉS, Yana TOON, Ramon TREMOSA i BALCELLS, Iuliu WINKLER, Janusz WOJCIECHOWSKI, Pablo ZALBA BIDEGAIN and Tatiana ZDANOKA
