One of the tasks entrusted to the Dutch Media Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media) is to watch over the separation between the editorial and the commercial element on television and radio (cvdm.nl). It does so through the Media Law, which lays down rules for public and commercial broadcasters and applies them to the national, regional and local levels. The Media Authority is also in charge of granting broadcasting licenses for radio and television and audits the annual accounts of public broadcasting organizations. In addition, the Authority publishes the Media Monitor (see E8), an annual report analyzing the ownership relations and markets pertaining to newspapers, television, radio and opinion magazines. The Monitor is usually available in May, and the data bear on the previous year. Since 2005, separate studies have been carried out each year on the news market in the Netherlands. The latest thematic study was published in the autumn of 2009 and dealt with a content analysis of the news on a day chosen at random and a study of the role of reports made by the Dutch news agency ANP in news articles and background information in the newspapers. The News Monitor is published periodically (see E8).
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