BROOKE GLADSTONE: While the Venezuelan government furnishes a lifeline for sympathetic broadcasters in the barrios, recent events in the European mediascape have officials there re-examining their own commitment to public broadcasting. State funded media have deep roots on the continent, but a recent spate of journalistic errors, like the scandal surrounding the BBC's coverage of pre-war intelligence, has public broadcasters under mounting pressure from commercial competitors and hostile politicians. We've seen similar debates in Congress here. Just last month, public broadcasters were called back up to Capitol Hill to make a case for continued subsidies. Those subsidies amount to less than 20 percent of their budgets, but as Eric Pfanner recently wrote in the International Herald Tribune, there's a good deal more at stake in Europe.

ERIC PFANNER: In most countries, a much larger percentage than 20 percent comes from public sources. It may be through taxes and direct grants from the government. More likely, the way it is in Britain or in France is through license fees where people are billed for the use of a television in their home, and they have to pay a certain amount of money every year, which can be quite substantial, just to have the privilege of a television in their home.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:So what's happening over there? I mean listeners to our show probably know more than they would like to about the BBC's problems with the Blair government, and of course now the BBC's undergoing a previously scheduled review that could change the entire face of, of all the BBC properties. Is that happening in France and in Germany and in Italy?

ERIC PFANNER: It's probably not as formalized, but there are calls from commercial competitors in France, in Germany, in Italy for a change in the system - people saying this is not a level playing field; and there are of course politicians who are lining up on one side or the other. In France, what we saw over the last couple of weeks was a drama where the state funded or publicly funded broadcaster, France Deux, one of the television channels, incorrectly reported about the resignation of a former prime minister from several political posts he still holds, and what that did is it cast a harsh light on that broadcaster's own operations and result in the resignation of its new director and the suspension of a popular news anchor. There's a big competition between France Deux and its commercial competitor, T.F.N., which is the largest broadcaster in France, so there's speculation that the pressure to get on the air fastest with the news might have played a role. And of course this is the kind of commercial pressure that publicly funded broadcasters didn't necessarily have in years past when they could rely on comfortably going forward with a big chunk of the market.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Now if it was mostly commercial pressures, perhaps, in France, then you'd have to say that it was mostly political pressure that public broadcasting is under in Italy.

ERIC PFANNER: That's right. The government of Prime Minister Berlusconi has three of the positions on the board of R.A.I., the public broadcasting operation there, and there have been a number of cases where there's at least a perception of political influence being used to influence news coverage.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: A "perception?"

ERIC PFANNER: [LAUGHS] Maybe, maybe that's a bit of a polite way to put it.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Not to put too fine a point on it, Berlusconi has either bought out or pressured through his political connections virtually every news outlet that he doesn't own.

ERIC PFANNER: Well, that's right. That's right. That's not necessarily dealing specifically with the public broadcaster, but it obviously demonstrates his intent to influence what's being said in the media in general.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: What about Germany? That's pretty much an argument about money right?

ERIC PFANNER:Yeah. There from time to time are complaints there about political interference or too much oversight by politicians, but there haven't been any sort of high profile incidents, so instead what you have there is a, a marketplace battle going on. You have an American investor, Chaim Saban, who recently bought one of the largest commercial broadcasters in Germany and has made some calls for the public broadcaster there to wean its way off of public funds, because he says this is an unfair playing field. What he really objects to actually is the fact that the public broadcaster is getting public money at the same time that in Germany it is also allowed to sell some advertising.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: They get all these revenue streams.

ERIC PFANNER: Yeah, in fairness, it's not a huge amount of the revenue stream that comes from commercial sources.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Let me ask you a question that is always asked here. Is public broadcasting outmoded? Has it outlived its usefulness in Europe?

ERIC PFANNER: [LAUGHS] I mean I think that depends on, on whom you ask; I mean for a lot of viewers, 40 percent of the British audience watches the various BBC programming. It produces a lot of the best programming in Britain.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: How about France, Italy and Germany?

ERIC PFANNER:In France, France Deux, they're actually trailing in the market. They're the second broadcaster there, and they have a somewhat smaller percentage. In Germany, it's also I believe a bit over 40 percent.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:The percentages that you talk about for all of those countries, it just far surpasses what American public television has, so that has to suggest that the public still cares about it deeply.

ERIC PFANNER: Sure. I think the best poll is to look at what people actually do.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So they're voting with their remotes.

ERIC PFANNER: I guess they're voting with their remotes; that's right.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Eric Pfanner, thank you very much.

ERIC PFANNER: Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Eric Pfanner is a reporter for the International Herald Tribune, and he spoke to us from London. [MUSIC]