I didn’t quite catch that…

It has long been a staple of political commentary that the names for government schemes quite often mean something very different to what the scheme actually does. Examples from the States could include the USA PATRIOT Act or the Clean Water Act; from a little closer to home you’d be wise to check the small print on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (a little regulation, but much more power), or any one of the dozens of Criminal Justice Acts (more criminals, yes, but the things generally mean less justice).

The EU is not exempt from this phenomenon, as shown by the Television Without Frontiers directive. What would an analysis of that name suggest? Well, a trusting sort would be forgiven for thinking that it was about reducing the barriers between EU countries in the matter of the television industry. BUt, of course, that wouldn’t be 100% accurate.

The European Commission proposal would require websites and mobile phone services that feature video images to conform to standards laid down in Brussels.

Ministers fear that the directive would hit not only successful sites such as YouTube but also amateur “video bloggers” who post material on their own sites. Personal websites would have to be licensed as a “television-like service”.

Viviane Reding, the Media Commissioner, argues that the purpose is simply to set minimum standards on areas such as advertising, hate speech and the protection of children.

So, it’s actually suggesting more barriers (a barrier being something that you’d find at a frontier) on broadcasts outside of television.

Obviously, this is filed in that big cabinet labelled “Stupid EU Ideas”. MySpace, in particular, would be shafted. YouTube would have some troubles. And the barriers of entry to things like 18 Doughty Street would be massive.

In what way would this be a good thing, apart from protecting the incumbent media companies? Not that I have anything in particular against the media companies, but a little bit of competition is always good. And the EU seems to be acting very anti-competition.