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Europeans Weigh Regulating of Converging Media LONDON, June 5 - In a world where television is jumping out of the tube and into mobile phones and the Internet, European officials are talking about taking their regulatory oversight along as well. The possible shift would push European media regulators into uncharted waters. In the United States, where regulators are cracking down on what they call indecent broadcasts over the public airwaves, lawmakers are only now considering giving them similar authority over cable and satellite broadcasts. But in Europe the move to open up new regulatory fronts seems to be driven more by technological change than any desire to crack down on naughty behavior. Long gone are the days when audiovisual media were limited to a handful of analog TV channels or the movies. Digital television via cable, satellite or the terrestrial airwaves delivers dozens or even hundreds of channels to more than 20 percent of European homes. Mobile phones offer moving pictures to users on the go. Video-on-demand services deliver movies or television via the Internet. "Conditions of fair competition require a neutral stance with regard to and between platforms," Viviane Reding, the European information society and media commissioner, said in a speech last week in Luxembourg. "This neutrality will put all service and content providers on an equal footing, guarantee a coherent regulatory framework and reinforce legal security." While European regulators already treat the content of cable and satellite television the same as over-the-air broadcasts - unlike the current American approach - the European Commission is expected to present proposals to extend content regulation to new media by the end of the year. Any change would require amending the Television Without Frontiers directive, a measure that sets out broad guidelines for television regulation across the 25-member European Union. The directive, adopted in 1989 and revised seven years later, requires member states to ensure the separation of advertising and programming, to restrict hate speech and to protect minors, among other things, but it leaves implementation up to the individual countries. Experts say any change in the directive is likely to let them regulate new media with a lighter touch than the old. Standards of decency already range widely across the European Union. On Italian television, scantily clad women read the news and cavort around variety shows in ways that might make viewers in places like Britain cringe. German television offers a selection of late-night erotica that seems to promise more than it delivers. "I can hardly imagine the European Union telling member states what is decent and what is not," said Susanne Nikoltchev, head of the legal information department at the European Audiovisual Observatory in Strasbourg, France. "This is an issue that is very near to the hearts of national legislatures and people." The kinds of programming judged offensive in recent years have varied widely from country to country. German regulators have taken aim at broadcasts from the Middle East deemed anti-Semitic. The Portuguese authorities persuaded broadcasters to set up a self-regulatory body to monitor reality television after complaints that the "Big Brother" shows violated contestants' "human dignity." And the British have tried to restrict access to Extasi TV, an Italian-owned satellite channel that broadcasts violent pornography from Spain. In general, the European approach seems to be why worry about a few swear words on mainstream TV when far more offensive stuff is readily accessible in many homes at the click of a mouse. That is the direction that Ofcom, the British media regulator, takes with a television code introduced last month.
http://www.nytimes.com
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