Speaking at a Foreign Policy Centre seminar yesterday on the Television without Frontiers Directive, the main EU piece of legislation dealing with broadcasting, JAMES PURNELL MP, Minister for Creative Industries said:

"I believe that the next version of TVWF will only be effective if we learn the lessons of the Directive's success to date and unite the Union around a more deregulatory version of the Commission's current proposals. If we don't do this, then in 10 years our successors will bemoan the handicaps we gave to European industry and the restraints we put on free speech."

Mr Purnell, who is responsible for broadcasting, is to lobby European Union member states to gather support for the UK government's opposition the European Commission's plans for new media regulation. The legislation has been in existence since 1989 and is need of revision to accommodate the exponential growth of new media. The Commission proposes to extend the legislation to non-linear media for the first time.

Speaking yesterday at a Foreign Policy Centre seminar on plans for revising the TVWF directive, Mr Purnell said the EC's proposal should not seek to regulate new media in the same way as traditional forms of communication.

"We do have serious concerns about a very fundamental aspect of what the Commission are proposing. That is the suggestion that the scope of this Directive be widened to cover new media services – that it should change from being a 'TV' Directive to being an 'Audio-visual Media Services' Directive.

"My argument is that this increased scope could mean significant regulation of the Internet and stifle the growth of new media services. That would raise prices for consumers, and deprive them of potential new services.

"I will argue that the case for extending regulation has not been made and that it is unclear how the proposal will fit with the e-Commerce Directive…the solution is to adopt the self-regulatory approach"

The speech was given at a seminar organised by the Foreign Policy Centre on the Television without Frontiers Directive, and hosted by the European Commission Representation in London on 26 January 2006.

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