Katarzyna Chałubińska-Jentkiewicz, Media Audiovizualne. Konflikt Regulacyjny w dobie cyfryzacji [Audiovisual Media: regulatory conflict in the digitalisation era], Wolters Kluwer Polska – LEX, Warszawa 2011

Abstract

The book under review here is entitled Audiovisual Media: regulatory conflict in the digitalisation era by Katarzyna Chalubinska- Jentkiewicz. As the title suggests, I expected it to be a monograph on new regulatory problems in the increasingly digital audiovisual field. The sector itself is well known to cause competence conflicts between the as many as three different regulatory bodies overseeing it in Poland: the national telecoms regulator (the UKE President), the audiovisual media supervisory body (the KRRiT) and the competition authority (the UOKiK President). The impact of the European Commission can also not be overlooked. The book does indeed deal in great detail with what is seen as the ‘regulatory conflict’ in the audiovisual field but the approach applied therein is that of the theory of administration and administrative/constitutional law rather than that of market regulation. As a result, the analysis focuses primarily on the perceived ‘conflict’ between Poland’s interests and regulatory competences and the impact exercised by the European Union as a whole, rather than on any existing or potential internal conflicts. Key to the entire analysis is the contraposition of the notion of ‘public interest of a nation’ (State) and the ‘general interest of the EU’ whereby the special characteristics of ‘national’ public interest are associated with the notion of ‘public morality’ and also, ‘public mission’.