Media and cultural industries

The most restrictive foreign ownership regulations have typically prevailed in media and cultural industries in which foreign ownership has often been limited to minority equity ownership. The rationales for these restrictions have been to prevent foreign influence through foreign ownership in these sensitive industries with high social and political impact. In some countries, the media have been an organ of the state used to carry out the mission of the government in power. Foreign investment in the media has been seen as diminishing this government regulatory power. In the Philippines, where the 1991 changes in the Foreign Investment Act swept away most sectoral restrictions, those on media were retained. As of 1994, The Republic of Korea had a total ban on foreign investment in mass media. Canada has sought to maintain domestically-owned media networks to support a distinctive Canadian analysis of political and social developments.