The End of the Press Subsidies ‘Experiment’ in Sweden?

Abstract

Debates about media ownership concentration have continued in Australia over the past half-century, and particularly in the last decade since Murdoch's News Ltd took over the Herald and Weekly Times group of newspapers in 1986–87. At the time, and at the subsequent 1991 Lee print media inquiry, the press subsidies system operating in Sweden received some attention from researchers and policy-makers alike as a possible solution to further increases in media ownership concentration in Australia. In light of recent inquiries into media ownership in Australia, particularly the Productivity Commission, it is now timely to consider Sweden's approach to media policy in the late 1990s. In particular, this paper will focus on the 1999 report by the Media Concentration Group in Sweden, which examined issues such as the future of print and broadcast legislation, and the impact of convergence on media policy. As Sweden — and indeed the Scandinavian region — has long held one of the most diverse media ownership environments in the Western world, their future policy directions may provide some options for Australian media policy researchers and policy-makers.