Today, national broadcasting regulators meeting in Brussels agreed on an initiative to jointly combat incitement to religious and political hatred on TV (see here). In short, the idea is to coordinate and exchange information about which channels are banned where (this includes channels from non-European countries that are received by satellite). There has also been talk about eventually establishing a (check this!): restricted Internet forum in which to discuss problematic cases (why is the public left out, again?).

This initiative follows rows over Arab satellite stations (mainly Al Manar) transmitting from France. Supposedly, it will feed into the review process of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, which might extend content regulation to the Internet (don�t� ask me how they�ll do it!).

There is indeed a very fine line dividing freedom of expression and intolerable (racist or other) content. And the line changes constantly. I very well understand that this is a highly delicate issue, strongly influenced by European history (remember the Yahoo! case and the different approach in the US), and I am equally concerned about the problem of enduring racism that Europe faces. Controlling (i.e., limiting) broadcasting seems to be the favoured answer, or part of it. Let�s see what the Directive will say on this and how 25 countries with quite different perceptions on the matter will coordinate. It slightly worries me that rigid prohibitions to broadcast X will smoothly shift into positive requirements to broadcast Y.