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The Independent Television Commission, the UK broadcasting regulator, has announced its proposals for interoperability and open access in the digital age after undertaking a consultation exercise. Its aim is to ensure that viewers can be assured that digital television equipment can be used to access any digital platform. The proposals set out an agreed set of technical specifications across all digital platforms to ensure interoperability and a mechanism for developing them further. In the case of integrated digital televisions cable and satellite operators will not be obliged to support plug-in...

A section 177 order which proscribes Eurotica Rendez Vous came into force at Friday 11 September 1998. It is now a criminal offence to supply dedicated equipment ( e.g., smartcards) and programme material, advertise for or on Eurotica Rendez Vous, or to provide any other service in support of the channel within the UK. Section 177 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 enables the Secretary of State to "proscribe" or declare a foreign satellite service as unacceptable if the following conditions are met: (i) the Independent Television Commission has notified the Secretary of State it believes the service...

The ITC published its response at the beginning of September to the Government's consultation document on "Television: the Digital Future" which considers how and when analogue broadcasting could end. The ITC argues that if viewers' expectations are to be met and social exclusion is to be avoided, digital television needs to maintain both the near-universal availability of analogue transmissions, ( i.e., to over 99% of homes) and the greatly-valued regional services. Digital terrestrial television is the only platform which can satisfy these criteria, provided that, at the point of analogue switch-off,...

The Annual Report of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) was published on 13 August. The Report proposes a fresh approach to the control of pornography in the UK, largely in the light of the failure to stem the burgeoning black market in violently pornographic videos. The Report suggests that licensed sex shops should be freer to sell explicit videos, provided they do not include violence or any paedophile element. In general, the Report argues that the current obscenity laws do not work, foster a demand that cannot be met legally and force police and magistrates to act as "surrogate...

The Data Protection Bill 1998 received Royal Assent at the end of July. The new Act implements Council Directive 95/46/EEC ([1995] OJ L281/31) on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. The Act creates a Data Protection Commissioner with enhanced privacy protection powers and broadens the scope of the existing legislation so that it now covers for the first time information relating to living individuals held in manual files. The new Act also strengthens the individual's right of access to information held about them. It...