The regulation of the press in an era of media convergence is a thorny issue, which regulators around the world have tried to either grapple with or sweep under the carpet. The time has long passed when newspapers were just ‘news’ printed on ‘paper’. They are still that, but also now include news content published online, on websites which can carry videos that are reminiscent of television.

The technological convergence between press and broadcasting throws into sharp relief the historically disparate regulation of the two sectors, including in the UK where the press is subject to a voluntary system of self-regulation while television is subject to statutory regulation under Ofcom. This raises the question of whether technological convergence should lead to regulatory convergence. The topic was debated at length by a range of academics and practitioners during a conference last year held at Middlesex University School of Law, with generous funding by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. It has also been debated at a recent Westminster Media Forum conference, and the question of how to define ‘TV-like’ content will be a central theme at the upcoming Media Policy Project conference on the revision of the Audiovisual Services Directive, to be held in Brussels in June 2016.

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