October 2003 Language Charter requires that States Parties “base their policies, legislation and practice” on, inter alia, “the need for resolute action to promote regional and minority languages in order to safeguard them,” and “the facilitation and/or encouragement of the use of regional or minority languages, in speech […] in public and private life”. In Article 7(3), the Parties undertake to encourage the mass media to promote “mutual understanding between all the linguistic groups of the country”. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, in Article 17(d), stipulates that “States Parties shall encourage the mass media to have particular regard to the linguistic needs of the child who belongs to a minority group or who is indigenous”. OSCE participating States have undertaken to create conditions for persons belonging to national minorities to have equal opportunity to be effectively involved in the public life, economic activities, and building of their societies (Chapter IV of the Geneva Document). Article 15 of the Framework Convention states that “The Parties shall create the conditions necessary for the effective participation of persons belonging to national minorities in cultural, social and economic life and in public affairs, in particular those affecting them”. In paragraph 33 of the Copenhagen Document, OSCE participating States have undertaken when adopting measures to, inter alia, protect the linguistic identity of national minorities, and to conduct “due consultations, including contacts with organizations or associations of such minorities, in accordance with the decision-making procedures of each State”. In Chapter III of the Geneva Document, OSCE participating States have recognized that appropriate democratic participation of persons belonging to national minorities or their representatives in decision-making or consultative bodies constitutes an important element of effective participation in public affairs. Article 11(3) of the European Language Charter requires Parties to ensure that the interests of minority language users are represented or taken into account specifically within broadcast media regulatory bodies. 6) The need for independent regulatory bodies derives from the principles of democracy and good governance and from international best practices. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers Recommendation No. R (99) 1 to Member States on Measures to Promote Media Pluralism notes that “national bodies responsible for awarding licences to private broadcasters should pay attention to pluralism in the discharge of their mission” (Appendix, item I, Regulation of ownership: broadcasting and the press). More specifically, the 1998 Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities states in Recommendation 10 that public media bodies “overseeing 18