Reding: ICT research is even more important in the aftermath of the financial crisis

EU-Commissioner Reding in Lyon, Nov 25 2008: Why ICT research is even more important in the aftermath of the financial crisis

ICT research and innovation must moreover be put at the service of tackling our long-run challenges in the areas of health, energy and transport. Only then will we be able to innovate faster in vertical markets. Only then will public authorities be able to modernise services responding to challenges such as ageing populations, rising energy costs, or congested transport systems.

Let me give you an example: the development of an electronic identity management infrastructure, as a basis for trustworthy services in e-government and e-commerce. Think of the difference this would make for business efficiency and citizen-friendly services. Think what it would mean to overcome today's fragmentation, closed solutions, lack of interoperability, lack of legal transparency and limited market scale.

A background of the talk is the problems faced in the ICT sector due to the financial crisis, it looks like some help packages are beeing prepared but are sought to be tight to solving actual market problems such as lack of openness and interoperability.

Reding will Fernsehrichtlinie aufs Netz loslassen

Es gibt eine neue Fassung der EU-Fernsehrichtlinie der Kommission.

Da wird nun die Katze aus dem Sack gelassen:

DIRECTIVE ... concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities

The title is amended as follows:
“Directive [No] of the European Parliament and of the Council on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media
Services Directive)”.

In der Richtlinie finden sich viele bereits für Fernsehregulierung unnütze Vorschläge, so beispielsweise die Idee der Ko-Regulierung, dass heisst die Ausgliederung von Zensur an Inhaltskontrolle. Aus der freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle wird offiziöse "Selbstkontrolle".

"Kommerzielle" Kommunikation soll etwa nicht mehr Religionen oder politische Überzeugungen angreifen dürfen:

(c) audiovisual commercial communications must not:
(i) prejudice respect for human dignity
(ii) include any discrimination on grounds of race, sex or nationality;
(iii) be offensive to religious or political beliefs;
(iv) encourage behaviour prejudicial to health or to safety;

Man sieht hier die Werkzeuge für den Marsch in eine andere, weniger liberale Rechtsordnung. Hier die deutsche Pressemeldung der EU-Kommission.