Broadcast Policy and Regulation (Licensing) ‘Yomi

Thoughts on Broadcast Policy “The Bill deals with the means by which our society speaks to it self and, as it were hears the echo. It is the means by which we talk to the world, it is a shaper of our culture, our identity and our values. For the Government therefore, the Bill is not simply a device to regulate or deregulate an industry, it plays a vital role in every one of our wider aspirations as Britain. 4<br>

Thoughts on Broadcast Policy It will give consumers choice, the variety that they demand and deserve and will give citizens the information that they need. It will free the industry of unnecessary interference, give it freedom to grow and diversify, allow it an opportunity to change as the world Communication changes, and to gain access to new sources of investment as well as new ideas and challenges. It prepares us for DIGITAL era.”
British Minister, opening parliamentary debate on the Communication Bill of 2002 5<br>

COMPOSITION OF BP A good Broadcast Policy must have the following ingredients;
Allow citizens to speak and hear their own voices
Allow the Nation talk to the world
Must shape our culture, our identity and our values.
Must encourage pluralism and diversity
Give freedom to the industry
Must take us into and through the Digital era 6<br>

BEST BP The best policy will be one that each citizen however poor, should have access to Broadcast information from which he/she can make choices. In turn that goal holds implication for market structure and for content 7<br>

BROADCAST REGULATION There are different models of regulation, the principles that underpin these models are the importance of editorial and program independence and a pluralistic and diverse broadcasting system differentiated into three tiers namely
Public
Community
commercial 8<br>

BROADCAST REGULATION Regulation framework must address both structural and behavioral aspects of broadcasting.
Structural regulation refers to the broadcasting systems and institutional arrangements.
Behavioral regulation refers to programming and content issues as they relate to, and affect the audience (Citizenry) 9<br>

A PEEP AT CONVERGENCE When former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore first used the term information superhighway in 1985, did he envisage the clogging of traffic on this highway ? 10<br>

INTERNET The Internet can carry and deliver all modes of content on an interactive basis. Old distinctions between publishing, broadcasting, and telecommunications have already lost their meaning on the Internet. The segmentation of voice, video, and data traffic is also undermined, although not abolished. The Internet currently offers access to news content, mail and document distribution, financial services, photos and graphics, various forms of electronic commerce and digital money, games, real-time voice and music clips, and even some limited clips of real-time video. In addition, it has created new forms of media such as chat rooms, MUDs, search engines, and browsers. 11<br>

INTERNET AS A CONTENT PLATFORM The Internet's multimedia capabilities are still limited by congestion, low-band-width access to residences, and the presence of older chipsets in many home and office computers. Over time, however, new administrative arrangements, better pricing mechanisms, the expanding power of ICs, and equipment upgrades will reduce these barriers. Will the freeing of part of broadcast spectrum improve both access and efficiency of internet in our environment? 12<br>

BORDERLESS MARKET The falling cost of bandwidth and processing power makes national boundaries increasingly irrelevant in determining the features of digital media. Unlike traditional telephony, there is no "distance premium" on the Internet and no regulatory regime, like the international settlements system, that makes data movements pay special taxes for crossing international borders. Multimedia content can be distributed globally and, via electronic commerce, services and products can be consumed from any point. It will become increasingly difficult and counterproductive for governments to monitor and control the movement of bits. A regime of increasingly free trade in information and telecommunication services and content seems inevitable. 13<br>

CONSEQUENCES OF NEW MARKET When entire motion pictures can be transmitted in encrypted form over international lines in a few seconds, and when Internet users can experience or download pictures, music or videos hosted on computers far outside their home country's jurisdiction, the concept of broadcasting laws and regulations that restrict ownership to nationals or prescribe the kind of content that people can view within the country cannot survive for long. 14<br>

INTERNET CHALLENGES The most common challenges associated with the internet today relate to things such as privacy protection, the fight against cyber crime, or discussion on copyright and fair use. Totally different from challenges facing broadcasting. If broadcast regulation provides safeguards for the audience and we recognise the harmful effects of some of the common challenges associated with the internet today, what needs to be done in a developing countries like ours where established laws and regulations have failed to deal with infractions or issues much more straightforward than those listed here? 15<br>

REGULATING THE INTERNET Policy and regulation for the internet should focus on what is called MEDIA LITERACY, a concept which refers to the ability to access, understand, and create media in variety of contexts.
In other words the role of regulation in internet is the control of the delivery of content over the internet.??????????????????? 16<br>

INTERNET CONTENT The internet content market is and will remain a global one, with no central control of the services offered and no single point consumer protection enforcement.
A National regulator cannot manage a global content market, particularly one where there is no institution to be regulated. No channel, and no platform operator in overall control, either of the content or search and navigational tools the consumers use to find what they want 17<br>

NEW CONTENT REGULATION There should be a new approach to content regulation. An approach built on a model of responsibility distributed across the value chain, relying on a combination of industry and consumer responsibility, where each participant has a role to play 18<br>

CHALLENGES It is obvious that broadcasting institutions are no longer National, political and cultural institutions, but also global and economic institutions. The challenge of policy and regulation is to ensure that the institutions do not become purely global and economic to the neglect of our culture and democracy 19<br>

EXPECTED ROLES Content producers and aggregators can label content and provide age verification tools.
Content producers and distributors should take the moral step of self regulation, by accepting responsibility if the purvey material that is harmful or injurious to society’s wellbeing.
Hosts of users generated content such as You Tube or MySpace can (and have) develop community standards to define the types of content that they will make available and how they will deal with complaints.
Search engines and navigational tools can provide assistance to protect consumers. Eg. Google, safe search
Web hosts and ISPs work with self-regulation institutions ( such as the internet watch foundation) to take down illegal content, and voluntarily block illegal sites which are hosted outside their jurisdiction 20<br>

CONCLUSION Our continent is currently witnessing political changes, democracy is taking firm roots. What is needed to aid the growth of democracy is a broadcast policy which favour diversity and pluralism and which guarantees the freedom of choice that is key benefit of digitisation to the audience. State control and regulation must give way to public broadcasters with independence in Editorial and Programming THAT WILL HAVE AT ITS CORE THE WELLBEING OF THE CITIZENRY. An independent regulator not an appendage of a ministry or minister nor government 21<br>

CONCLUSION It is clear that the digital media is inherently more complex and fast moving than the analogue broadcasting, therefore our policy response to problematic content must be dynamic.
The nature of regulation in this new environment, requires regulators to redefine themselves and their role. In this new context, any attempt by the regulator to micromanage distribution and consumption in a way which is characteristic of traditional television will be like fighting modern war with bows and arrows 22<br>

THANK YOU ALL 23<br>