Turkey's AVMSD Compliance Analysis
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Emin KarakusTurkey's AVMSD Compliance Analysis
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Emin KarakusA CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION’S
AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA SERVICES DIRECTIVE FOR TURKEY
MUHAMMED EMIN KARAKUS
LLM IN QUALIFYING LAW
LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY
JANUARY 2021
1
Abstract
This dissertation aims to analyse contemporary Turkish legislation against the
requirements of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (‘AVMSD’) and
to review the prolonged processes of transposing this EU Directive into Turkish
law and its implementation into everyday Turkish life. It also aims to consider
developments in the field not covered in the EC Annual Reports.
The study aims to examine Turkey’s harmonisation process from past to present,
including convergences and divergences in adoption and implementation of the
AVMSD and Turkey’s current stance in the field. That stance will be explored
using EC Annual Reports, Turkish Government Progress Reports, action plans
prepared by the Turkish government, policy documents prepared by the
European Commission, its Council and its Parliament, and publications by
individual researchers about the negotiation process.
Part A of the Literature Review highlights the importance of the audio-visual
media services policy to the EU and the history of the AVMSD. Part B explores
the history of Turkey’s relationship with the EU, including the key cornerstones
of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations. Part C discusses the process of Turkey’s
harmonisation with the AVMSD, including transposition of the AVMSD into
Turkey’s domestic legislation and its subsequent implementation.
Finally, the dissertation reports other significant developments that have taken
place in the audiovisual services sector under the ‘Media’ segment of the EU
acquis. These developments have taken Turkey from a single TV channel country
in the 1990’s to a position 30 years later where it is the world’s second largest
exporter of TV programmes and where its public broadcaster produces
programmes in more languages than any other European country. These
improvements are both directly in line with the AVMSD and with other
improvements that flowed indirectly from European harmonisation, albeit they
were not framed in the EC Annual Reports and the literature.