Ruairi Quinn - internet is now one of two major threats to the media

Yakult

'we can't grasp it, so let's block it'

PseudoFamous

FinnLizzy wrote: »

What he should have been commenting on is flaming and hate speech, which is rampant in 'cyberspace'.

Why? Its clear as day labour have some sort of agenda (i.e., they're being bribed) with this internet blocking lark they're lipflapping about. Free speech is a package deal, you get everything, not just the parts you like.

blue5000

tfitzgerald wrote: »

This whole thread should be emailed to the prick anyone know his email adress

No 17 page 2

Solair

The printing press was a threat to the town crying business. The radio was a threat to the newspaper business. Television was a threat to the movie newsreel business and ultimately wiped it out. The internet is just the latest shift in communications technology.

Saying that the internet should be regulated is a bit like saying that conversations in the pub should be regulated or that you should regulate the ocean's waves.

The technology is there, it is not going away and it will change a lot of long-established paradigms. "The Media" is always changing. It's not something you can even easily define.

All tight regulation of the internet would do is make Ireland look like some kind of oppressive state like China and drive web servers off shore.

Does the Minister not realise that the internet is an amorphous network of interconnected computers that really does not have a single physical location. Attempting to censor or regulate it is pretty much technologically impossible. Even China can't do it with the full force of a high-tech dictatorship!

The history of regulation of the media in Ireland is very scary when you look into the past. We had book bannings, censorship based on religious view and generally no concept of freedom of communication until relatively recently. That being said, our nearest neighbour, the UK was no great model for that either. They had absolutely no tolerance of commercial broadcasting and also banned movies e.g. Life of Brian etc for similarly weird reasons.

The question is very simple:

Does Ireland want to be a centre of innovation, R&D and development of the internet and the online media industries?

Or, does it rather want to suit the interests of various status-quo vested interest in the local media outlets and lobbyists from abroad and hamstring Irish internet companies and frighten off inward investors?

I think that Ireland, being a small and very open economy, should be a champion of internet freedom, not an innovator in trying to control the web!

It's a futile exercise and it can really only bring the state negative news coverage abroad and do serious damage.

An example of this kind of inward-looking, out-of-touch idiotic legislation was the recent tweak to the defamation / liable laws which defined an offense of blasphemy.

What exactly did that achieve? OK, nobody will probably ever be prosecuted under this particular piece of legislation. So, it's basically pointless. However, it did an incalculable amount of damage to Ireland's reputation abroad. Instead of being seen as a bastion of freedom of expression, a good place to base yourself for academic research etc, our Government suddenly threw us into a situation where we were being compared with socially backwards oppressive states and rekindling the old freakishly conservative, oppressed image of Ireland of old!

It is very easy to send out a message that Ireland's a religiously conservative, backwards place where you can't say boo to a priest even if that's not true. However, it is MUCH more difficult and takes decades to disprove this and undo the damage that that idiotic legislation did.

The Government needs to cop on a bit and start putting the actual national interest ahead of nonsense like this.

Personally, I think the goodwill that Ireland gets from things like regularly being close to the top of the international press freedom index is worth a LOT more to the country than cozying up to an dying group of media moguls.

DeVore

Someone was asking for their email addresses??

Be polite, make your points and state that you would like to meet to discuss your issues in person. You are a voter, they have to respect that cos they know FF didnt and look what happened there.

For my sins I'm put forward as the head of this particular corner of this "genie" and I like being out of that bottle and I aint going back in any time soon Mr Quinn. Not without a fight.

Nodin

Mr Quinn said the strengths of traditional media were its “high degree of reliability, accuracy, authority and a willingness to accommodate different points of view”.

That's odd, because I'm fairly sure that the Nyberg report pointed out the combination of Government and media "cheerleading" during the boom years which led to our current day troubles.

(O, and Sam Smyth.)