ABSTRACT
Regulation provides the broader context within which deliberative communication through the media can (or cannot) materialize. The structural framework within which the media can operate and fundamental rights can be exercised and enjoyed through the media is shaped by regulation—particularly, in the ways in which regulation encompasses safeguards for fundamental rights and gives flesh to provisions for freedom of expression and freedom of information. This chapter discusses freedom of expression and of information as core components of any legal system supportive of deliberative communication through the media in Europe, paying due attention to relevant European case law. It also identifies the set of dimensions that are considered crucial for sustaining the exercise of freedom of expression and of information and reviews key findings of country case studies performed in 14 European Union (EU) Member States under the framework of the EU-funded Mediadelcom research project and guided by the concepts of freedom of expression and of information and the operational variables drawn from these.
