Gerardo Mombelli
Chairman of Infocivica, Rome
INFOCIVICA’s initiative today
Infocivica was set up in September 2000 with the aim of contributing towards the renewal of the national radio and television public service, describing and adapting it with respect to the new market conditions and the changes in society that was taking place. Right from the start the Association deliberately concentrated its initiatives on a European context, but it is only recently that references to the European Union have clearly gained a more prominent role and become part of the association’s explicit aims. This was sanctioned by the establishment of the European Workgroup of Turin in 2010 and the definition of a programme and a research agenda which is due to be be completed in the autumn of 2012 with an international conference dedicated to “public service media in the society of information and knowledge”.
The goal is not to prepare and submit to the EU institutions an organic supranational project regarding new management skills for the EU. Instead we aim to promote a detailed investigation and up-to-date reflection and discussion on the social and technological changes now taking place that are likely to hasten various converging national policies and a consequent adjustment of the 1997Amsterdam Protocol.
The enlargement of the concept of public service – that becomes a cross media phenomenon by including both new and old media – now coincides with a period of serious economic and financial crisis that weakens and undermines European cooperation and integration. But it is also because of this that our commitment must continue, because the present weakness of the national and European situation does not diminish the decisive importance of the comparative consideration and discussion of doctrines and policies that we have started. Indeed it makes it even more crucial.
|
