Friday, 11 May 2007, saw the close of the conference on European media policy "More trust in content" in Leipzig organised by the German EU Presidency in conjunction with the European Commission.
At the experts’ conference, attended by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media Bernd Neumann, Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate and Chair of the Broadcasting Commission of the Laender Kurt Beck, and Dana Dunne, head of AOL Europe, 250 media experts from all EU Member States discussed questions concerning the security and trustworthiness of online offerings.
Commissioner Bernd Neumann emphasised: “The objective must be to create the right conditions for children and young people to be able to make use of the opportunities the Internet has to offer without risk. Media policy has to contribute to this aim by providing mechanisms to ensure control and regulation."
An important outcome of the conference was the proposal to create a space for children on the Internet which is characterised by a set of positive values. Governmental organisations and NGOs, the media industry, educational and training institutions as well as parents were called upon to make an increased effort to achieve this objective.
The German initiative “Ein Netz für Kinder” (Children’s net) set up by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and other government and social institutions and companies in Germany was welcomed by the participants as an interesting best practice example for other Member States. The online offering “Netz für Kinder” will establish a safe, comprehensive and high-quality space to surf the Internet. This will be achieved by means of a “positive list” and the promotion of Internet content which is appropriate for children.
The German EU Presidency will also intensify efforts in education policy throughout Europe in the field of media education and teaching media literacy particularly in schools.
Due to the changing behaviour of especially young people in their media usage, public broadcasting corporations are increasingly being challenged to fulfil their social contract as regards information, education, advice and entertainment in the new media as well.
This also applies to private broadcasters, print media and new content providers.
Commissioner Bernd Neumann underlined “the opportunities offered by the Internet for increasing content diversity, which must not be underestimated”. Libraries, universities and political education institutions can also, the Commissioner continued, play an important role on the Internet, in terms of pluralism, variety and quality, as reliable alternative content providers. The German EU Presidency supports the digitalisation strategies of these institutions.
The media experts welcomed the fact that co-regulation particularly in the field of protection of minors was recognised in the revised EC Directive “Television without frontiers” as an instrument to implement this. The German EU Presidency encourages the Member States to agree on minimum requirements for co-regulation systems. Furthermore, new media areas such as games and mobile phone offers are to be integrated into the co-regulation system.
Further information is available on www.kulturstaatsminister.de, www.vertrauen-in-inhalte.de
