UK alone on TWF Directive

I spent the morning at the European Commission’s London offices attending a seminar organised by the Foreign Policy Centre on the subject of the revision of the European Television Without Frontiers Directive.

The keynote address was given by the DCMS Minister for Creative Industries, James Purnell. Given his background, there can be fewer current Ministers who are better equipped for their portfolio and he gave an eloquent, incisive and detailed critique of the Commission’s proposals. He characterised the UK as “the EU’s digital laboratory” and urged the need for “a more deregulatory version of the Directive”. He expressed “serious concerns” about the proposed extension of the Directive to all audio-visual material and claimed that the proposals would mean “a significant regulation of the Internet”.

In the Q & A session, I pointed out that the UK was essentially alone in its opposition to the new Directive and urged the articulation of a alternative approach which would involve much more explanation of how self-regulation could effectively address Commission and consumer concerns. The Minister responded that my point was “a very fair one”.

The other top table speakers at the seminar were Kip Meek, Chief Policy Partner at Ofcom, Anthony Walker, Director of Intellect, and Richard Allan, Head of Government Relations for Cisco Systems. A main theme of these contributions was the definitional problem of the proposed Directive with the distinction between linear and non-linear services being at best porous and at worst unenforcable. However, it was conceded that the UK position is currently an isolated one and it was generally agreed that much more needs to be done to explain to our European partners how self-regulatory processes and practices could deliver what the Commission is seeking to achieve.