p2pnet - rss feed: Do bloggers need quality control?
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P| Politics “Depressingly predictable,” says a post in British Blogs, going on »»»
Euro MPs are preparing to vote on proposals for European Union regulation of blogs with the aim of countering a “dangerous” and unregulated blogosphere.
Marianne Mikko, an Estonian centre-left MEP, is concerned that growing numbers of blogs are being used by individuals with “malicious intentions or hidden agendas”.
“We do not need to know the exact identity of bloggers. We need some credentials, a quality mark, a certain disclosure of who is writing and why. We need this to be able to trust and rely on the source,” she said.
Is Mikko (right), author of a draft report on “concentration and pluralism” in the media, looking for some form of control over the Net?
Asked if she considered bloggers to be a threat, No, she promised, said Denmark’s Euro-MeD in July.
However, she went on, “They are in position … to considerably pollute cyberspace. We already have too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent in cyberspace”.
She added, “I think the public is still very trusting towards blogs, it is still seen as sincere. And it should remain sincere. For that we need a quality mark, a disclosure of who is really writing and why.”
Now, media pluralism must be safeguarded and everyone should have access to free media, said European MPs in an amended version of Mikko’s report.
Calling for the creation of what they’re describing as “editorial charters”, they want to, “prevent owners, shareholders or governments from interfering with editorial content,” they say in an official statement released today.
They’re also encouraging an, “open discussion of the status of weblogs,” they say.
The European Parliament adopted a 307 for, 262 against, resolution urging it and member states to, “safeguard media pluralism and ensure that all EU citizens can access free and diversified media”.
During its presentation on Monday, Mikko, “responded to the concerns of many bloggers,” says the statement.
“My entrance into cyberspace has created rapid reaction among a lot of bloggers,” she said. “I shall make it clear now that nobody is interested in regulating the internet.”
The MEPs say they’re also concerned about the, “protection of copyrights online, insisting that third parties have to mention the source when taking over declarations, call for greater transparency with respect to personal data kept on users by search engines, email providers and social networking sites”.
In addition, they voiced concern over the media’s ability to carry out the role of a, “watchdog of democracy,” when private media enterprises are, “motivated by financial profit,” warning this could lead to loss of diversity.
“The resolution considers that competition law and media law should be interlinked to avoid conflicts between media ownership concentration and political power,” say the MPs.
British Blogs - Malicious intentions or hidden agendas, September 22, 2008
Euro-MeD - EU on Blogs: ‘Potential Malicious and Dangerous Cyberspace Pollution’, July 7, 2008
statement - MEPs defend media pluralism and call for discussion of blogs, September 25, 2008
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September 25th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
No
September 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Do bloggers need quality control? NO!
The reader is supposed to have enough intelligence, or at least sense, to discriminate between garbage and quality.
While well intentioned, this legislation is likely to turn out very, very ugly.
I see nightmarish legions of ‘unintended consequences’ looming.
SRG
September 25th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
“We already have too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent in cyberspace.”
For a second there, I thought she was talking about the Mainstream Media!
September 25th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
So, let me get this straight…
They’re proposing a regulation that would apply to an internet activity, yet there’s no intention for anyone to regulate the Internet.
Hmmm. I wonder how many more such regulations would be needed after that, to insure that the Internet is being properly “unregulated”??
September 26th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Well, ya know, sometimes we DO have to hold Jon back a little….
: )
September 26th, 2008 at 4:40 am
As predicted, the resolution (which is completely non-binding and has no legal effect) was voted down as it never had the slightest chance of being accepted. Please stop spreading stupid scaremongering BS like this.