Media and Communications – Page 7

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

I’ve had this Joni Mitchell song going round in my head since I read Damien Mulley’s apocalyptic post Privacy in a world of lifestreaming on Friday (and the song is relevant to my point even though Joni has sold out to Starbucks – say it ain’t so, Joni, say it ain’t so – she has signed a 2-album deal with Starbucks’ “Hear Music” label, and the first album, released in September, will contain a new version of Big Yellow Taxi).

Anyway, prompted in part by a story that UK police will soon have cameras in their helmets, Damien raises important questions about a world where our privacy is invaded – not so much by state surveillance or corporate cctv, which we all now recognise, tolerate, even accept (so the helmet cams are little more than portable cctv) – as by each other, as others post photos of us to flickr (or other photo sharing sites), or videos of us to YouTube (or other video sharing sites), or all this and much much more on bebo (or other social networking sites), to say nothing of what we reveal about others in the blogosphere.…

Justice shall be administered in public

28 July, 200720 March, 2013

| 9 Comments

| Irish Society, Media and Communications, Open Justice

Article 34.1 of the Constitution provides that

Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, and, save in such special and limited cases as may be prescribed by law, shall be administered in public.

Giving judgment in the Supreme Court yesterday in a very sad case, Hardiman J began by saying:

On the hearing of this appeal the Court was requested on both sides of the case to take such steps as were possible to prevent the publication of the applicant’s name or at of any detail which might identify him. This was requested on the basis that he was, undisputedly, a person under a disability.

The Court did not consider that it had, in these proceedings, any power to make an order in that regard. However the Court agreed to, and did, request any representatives of the media who might be present not to publish his name and said that it would not itself do so. The Court now repeats this request to any person who may wish to report this case either for the ordinary media or for the purposes of law reporting.

…

Another good day for privacy

20 July, 200727 July, 2007

| 4 Comments

| Digital Rights, Irish Society, Media and Communications

It’s a pretty common occurrence: your mobile phone beeps to record an incoming text message, and when you open it, it’s an unsolicited and unwelcome marketing message. Some are trivial, like your network’s most recent offer to customers on your tariff. But some are insidious, seemingly innocuous but containing great danger. Most people delete them, but some are sucked in, and the mobile phone costs (never cheap) suddenly become ruinous, as customers rack up huge bills on foot of premium rate charges incurred in following up on some of the marketing texts. Regtel, which regulates premium rate mobile phone services, has a useful page on stopping unwanted premium rate messages.

Those who receive the texts, and those who are taken in by the scams, can complain to Regtel or to the office of the Data Protection Commissioner, which are working together to combat mobile spam. So, today, following many such compaints, and an investigation by Regtel, officials from the Data Protection Commisioner’s office raided the offices of a number of companies involved in the mobile phone text marketing business (Ireland.com Breaking News | RTÃ‰ | Marie Boran in Silicon Republic). …

Amnesty advert

16 July, 200720 December, 2008

| 2 Comments

| Freedom of Expression, Media and Communications

The Irish Section of Amnesty International is broadcasting the following advertisement on Irish television:

A slightly longer, generic version is available here. It is a powerful advertisement, well worth the half-minute it will take to watch it; but it raises an interesting question. Is it a political advertisment within the meaning of section 20(4) of the Broadcasting (Authority) Act, 1960 and section 10(3) of the Radio and Television Act, 1988, which provide that no advertisement shall be broadcast which is “directed towards any religious or political end …”?

As we have seen several times on this blog (here, here, here, here and here), many advertisements have fallen foul of this prohibition, from TrÃ³caire‘s most recent lenten advertisment, through the Interim National Consumer Agency‘s campaign against price controls on groceries, to EU Commission advertisments extolling the virtues of the European Union. It is a silly and unjustifiable restriction on political speech, but it has survived scrutiny in the Irish and English courts, and the European Court of Human Rights has upheld restrictions on religious advertising. On the other hand, that Court has struck down prohibitions on political advertising, as has the US Supreme Court, just at the end of last month.…

Media Convergence

8 July, 200720 December, 2008

| 2 Comments

| Election 2007, Media and Communications

A superb piece by Gaby Wood in today’s Observer discusses one aspect of the convergence of media and illustrates another.

The piece itself, From the web to the White House, discusses how, with the advent of YouTube, the internet has become the key political battleground in the 2008 presidential election. Three short extracts from a long and interesting piece. First:

During the last presidential election, bloggers were the new digital phenomenon to contend with; now YouTube has taken precedence, and it has the potential for much more dramatic effect.

Given that we have just had an Irish general election in which candidates embraced blogging for the first time, perhaps we can look forward to the impact of YouTube in the next one, rather than in the one just past. …

Is email dying?

5 July, 200715 July, 2007

| 6 Comments

| Media and Communications

Jonathan Zittrain (below, left) thinks so (here, republished here):

… But this is a good time to point out something beyond the cat-and-mouse of spam-and-filter: email is dying. … most students today rarely use email, preferring instant messaging, Facebook, Myspace, and other private messaging attached to a proprietary service. … Email is clearly broken, and the various anti-spam tricks designed to extend its life can only go so far. But it’s sad to see the last great shared app eclipsed.

This seems more than a shade apocalyptic to me. It may be true of US high school kids and/or college students, but it is certainly not true – yet? – of Irish university students, to say nothing of their lecturers (some of whom have yet to embrace email, let alone transcend it!). But, that aside, there is an important question here: is email dying under the weight of spam? What do you think?

Update 1 (7 July 2007): Peter Black has also picked up on Zittrain’s post, and agrees with it; an extract:

I agree with this analysis as from my own experience I know that I almost never use email for any personal communication; I have to use email for work, but most of my personal communication occurs through Facebook.

…

IFCO bans Manhunt II

25 June, 20077 November, 2010

| 7 Comments

| Censorship, IFCO, Media and Communications

Following on from my recent posts (here and here) about the role of the Irish Film Censor’s Office (IFCO), last week brought news that the Censor, John Kelleher, had exercised his powers for the first time to ban a computer game on grounds of violence. The Video Recordings Acts, 1989 and 1992 extend the powers in the Censorship of Films Acts, 1923-1992 to cover videos (all of the relevant legislation is collected here). In particular, the Video Recordings Act, 1989 (also here) gives the Censor the power to certify and/or ban “video recordings”. Marie McGonagle discusses the system here (pdf; see pp 23-30; hat tip: TJ McIntyre). Although the definition of “video recording” in section 1 of the 1989 Act is sufficiently wide to cover games, they are (by another definition in the same section) exempted from that definition unless they are “unfit for viewing” (as defined in section 3); and if they are so unfit, then the Censor may ban them under Section 7(1)(b) of the Act, which provides:

If the Official Censor, having examined a video recording containing a video work … is of opinion that the work is unfit for viewing because …

(b) it depicts acts of gross violence or cruelty (including mutilation and torture) towards humans or animals,

he may make an order … prohibiting the supply of video recordings containing the work.

…

Google and Privacy redux

15 June, 200723 November, 2010

| 11 Comments

| data retention, Media and Communications, Privacy

Following on from my posts Who will google Google?, That was the week that was, and Watching your every move, come two articles from John Collins in today’s Irish Times (sub req’d), as well as some important developments by Google.

In Google classed as ‘hostile to privacy’, John writes:

How much information Google collects on its users and what it does with that information has once again become a burning topic for internet users.

…

cearta.ie

Category: Media and Communications

You don’t know what you’ve lost till it’s gone? Privacy in a world gone Web2.0

Justice shall be administered in public

Another good day for privacy

Amnesty advert

Media Convergence

Is email dying?

IFCO bans Manhunt II

Google and Privacy redux