There are two primary types of external buffers. First, there are national regulatory authorities — for the Flemish community this is the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (VRM), for the French it is the Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA). Both agencies are intended to ensure that the public service broadcasters carry out the objectives set forth in their contracts. They have no legal authority to intervene in programming decisions. VRM is led by a five-person general board: by law, this must include a chairman, a judge and three media professionals. These appointments are made by the Flemish government and do.
