Government to tighten up web controls

    * Mark Sweney
    * guardian.co.uk,
    * Friday September 26 2008 14:27 BST

Andy Burnham: said fear of the internet had hit confidence in the TV
industry. Photograph: Martin Godwin

The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, said today that the government
plans to crack down on the internet to "even up" the regulatory
imbalance with television.

Burnham, in a keynote speech at the Royal Television Society
conference in London, said that a fear of the internet had caused a
loss of confidence that had robbed the TV industry of "innovation,
risk-taking and talent sourcing" in programming.

Following the speech Burnham fielded questions from the floor,
including one asking him to expand on the topic of the internet and
the TV industry.

"The time has come for perhaps a different approach to the internet,"
he said. "I want to even up that see-saw, even up the regulation
[imbalance] between the old and the new."

He said that perhaps the wider industry, and government, had accepted
the idea that the internet was "beyond legal reach" and was a "space
where governments can't go".

Burnham said that he would like to "tighten up" online content and
services and "lighten up" some regulatory burdens around the TV
industry.

Burnham added that the government had highlighted the way forward with
its cross-industry and cross-departmental strategy to tackle music
piracy involving self-regulation.

"It is a new sign of our approach," he said. "It is not just about
copyright or intellectual property but [things like] taste and decency
in the online world. The time will come to say what are the direct
interventions [needed, if any]."

During his earlier keynote speech Burnham said that in the past seven
years, since a keynote speech in 2001 titled "Will the internet kill
broadcasting?", a "sense of fear implicit in this title has taken hold
in some places".

"It would appear, at times, that TV has lost confidence," he added.

Burnham said that the "online challenge" had resulted in two dangerous
tendencies emerging.

Firstly he criticised the burgeoning tendency in television to mimic
the user-generated, "here's my blog" feel of much of the internet,
particularly in current affairs and news.

"The internet as a whole is an excellent source of casual opinion," he
said. "TV is where people often look for expert or authoritative
opinion."

The second reaction to the rise of the internet has been a "tendency
towards safety first and the tried-and-tested, and way from
innovation, risk-taking and new talent", he argued.

"TV is in danger of ceding to the internet as the place where new
talent is found."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/26/digitalmedia.internet

****

"TV is where people often look for expert or authoritative opinion."

Mwwwhaaaaaa.

WM
www.critest.com

On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:05:54 -0700, Webmanager_CritEst wrote:


> 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/26/digitalmedia.internet
> 
> ****
> 
> "TV is where people often look for expert or authoritative opinion."
> 
> Mwwwhaaaaaa.

Too right! Either the man is a whopping ignoramus or it's a con job
in the making.

> 
> WM
> www.critest.com

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> Government to tighten up web controls

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7638492.stm

----
Prime Minister;

"But just as we would not allow them to go out unsupervised in playgrounds 
or in youth clubs or in swimming pools ..."
----

What a shocking thing to say.  It's terrible that society is at a state 
where such a thing can be said, let alone without challenge or questioning. 
Seems the g'ment has won the war on terror.