MEDIA OWNERSHIP
McCain Delays Cap Legislation
Senate Media Hearing on Thursday
E-GOVERNMENT
Service Struggle for Virtual Town Halls
INTERNET
Outrage over India Yahoo Ban
Stating the Case for Online Sales Tax
DIGITAL DIVIDE
UN Recruits Expats to Help Bridge Digital Divide
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
MCCAIN DELAYS CAP LEGISLATION
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has put a hold on appropriations legislation that
would roll back the cap on national TV ownership to 35 percent of the
nation's TV households. He believes that media ownership issues should be
decided in his committee -- the Senate Commerce Committee -- rather than the
Senate Appropriations Committee. Besides rolling back the cap, the bill that
Sen. McCain wants put to a full-Senate vote would overturn the FCC's
newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ruling and potentially force major group
broadcasters, including Clear Channel Communications and Cox Communications,
to divest key radio properties. McCain will hold hearings on media ownership
on Thursday, October 2 to re-examine rollback issues, such as where the cap
should be set (see next story for event details). Chris Murray, legislative
counsel for the Consumers Union, said the commerce committee legislation
would be good for the public because it has a wider reach and could be
permanent, while the appropriations bill would target one part of the FCC's
deregulation and for only one year.
SOURCE: Television Week; AUTHOR: Doug Halonen
http://www.tvweek.com/topstorys/092903mccain.html
SENATE MEDIA HEARING ON THURSDAY
Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will
hear testimony on evidence of concentration in various media markets and
appropriate regulatory limits on ownership. This full committee hearing will
take place on Thursday, October 2 at 9:30am ET in room SR-253. There will be
a live webcast of the hearing.
SOURCE: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=950
E-GOVERNMENT
SERVICE STRUGGLE FOR VIRTUAL TOWN HALLS
Budget cutbacks and a faltering economy have resulted in many local
governments holding back on deployment of e-government and technology
initiatives. But even as some municipalities scale back, others are pressing
ahead with plans to integrate government services into their websites. In
Franklin, Massachusetts, volunteers developed a website (www.franklin.ma.us)
that enables town officials, civic groups and teachers to create and manage
their own Web pages. Other communities have turned to outside companies for
help. The small town of Eastport, Maine, created a website with the help of
Virtual Town Hall (www.virtualtownhall.net), one of several companies with
systems that allow municipal employees without technical expertise to manage
site content. Others are GovOffice (www.govoffice.com) and EzGov
(www.ezgov.com). Websites do not always save the government money, but some
municipal officials would say that is not the point. They say that the
biggest beneficiaries are the individuals and businesses who use the
systems.
SOURCE: San Mateo County Times; AUTHOR: Thomas J. Fitzgerald
http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1662620,00.html
INTERNET
OUTRAGE OVER INDIA YAHOO BAN
Anger is spreading at a viral pace among India's Internet users in response
to the Indian government's Computer Emergency Response Team's (CERT-IN)
decision to effectively ban access to all Yahoo discussion groups. The
Indian government ordered the move because Yahoo's Kynhun discussion forum
had links with outlawed separatist groups. The ban has caused major
inconveniences to users across the country. Thousands of users have flooded
the CERT-IN website calling for the ban to be lifted. Indian Internet
service providers are liable for all third party data and content under the
IT Act. Lacking the technical expertise to block a sub-group, they have
responded by blocking Kynhun's IP address, which makes no distinction
between it and other Yahoo discussion groups. Media watchdogs say this case
highlights the danger of Internet censorship. "Blocking a few Web pages can
result in the blocking of hundreds of other Web pages that have nothing to
do with the banned content -- this is a recurring problem on which we must
remain very vigilant," says Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General
Robert M