According to the democratic ideal, fair and open media should exist in society without political intervention. But sometimes self-regulation of the media is no more desirable than governmental control. According to the MediaAct research project, the ‘gold standard’ in Europe should be ‘regulated self-regulation’, whereby the media industry is expected to self-regulate but that governmental actors (at the national and European level) should be allowed to intervene if standards drop. Finding a way to combine the business and journalistic aspects of mass media will be key, say the researchers.
