The first stage usually continues the close ties between government and the news through formal relationships and contacts. In the second stage, government moves to the establishment of licensing commissions to render less arbitrary the assignment of licenses. First efforts are made to privatize the central state media, though ambivalence over losing control often makes this privatization effort partial. Newspapers tend to be freer than electronic media, but this varies from country to country. Emerging private stations seek foreign capital or the means to network and reach larger audiences.
Content becomes increasingly similar to programming seen around the world.
The third stage concerns marketplace economies. The issues include how the government retains its voice, or a measure of control, in an environment of new owners, whether there should be restrictions on ownership, and whether defamation laws should be modified to protect media institutions. The third stage also opens questions of media globalization and new technology, for example, whether rules should be established concerning the Internet and direct broadcast satellites. The rule of law implies a society in which legal principles are followed. If the goal is to develop free and independent media, the rule of law also implies a particular set of rules or legal principles, one that fosters a public sphere with the effective capacity to inform public opinion, and to influence and criticize government without forgetting that legal principles exist in the context of institutions, tradition, and technologies.