Apr 7th 2005
By: monica
By: monica
Graduated regulation of “regulatable” content
Following up on Peggy�s earlier post on the controversies and debates regarding the distinction for regulatory purposes between �broadcasting� and �information society� services, I want to draw attention to a discussion document that deals with these very same matters, this time in the context of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT), which is currently under review.
Under consideration is the question of whether the regulation of new media services is undesirable, or simply impracticable at the present time. In line with the discussions that surround the revision of the Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVWF) the view exists that it is rather the latter than the former. This implies expanding the scope of the Convention (and the TVWF Directive) to cover new interactive and personalised services such as video-on-demand that should be regulated in a flexible manner and not necessarily subject to traditional (and highly interventionist) modes of broadcasting regulation. This has been described as �graduated regulation� which conditions the degree of regulation to the nature of the service. An example is the German approach to the legislation of media and teleservices.
Along these lines, the discussion document for the ECTT supports the need to develop a new model of content regulation that will apply to all electronic media horizontally and in a technologically-neutral fashion, involving where needed self and co-regulation. The fuzzy and yet to be defined concept of �regulatable content� is used to refer to �broadcast-like� content, to content �delivered by the new technologies and capable of influencing public opinion and people�s minds�, and to �licensable service�. Very broad indeed.
How to devise a model of �horizontal, technologically-neutral, graduated regulation of �regulatable� content�? It is certainly quite a challenge. If you have any ideas you have time until the 15th of May to submit comments (in English or French and no more than 4 pages long) to: media@coe.int These will feed into the review of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT).
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