Lex Ferenda

The ever-reliable Lo Fi Librarian reminds me of the British Library e-petition, with “British citizens and residents” being asked to sign the Downing Street e-petition.  As I can’t sign it, the help of Lex Ferenda readers in the realm of Her Majesty would be greatly appreciated.  As you’re probably aware, the Library is facing a serious reduction in funding, with threatened consequences including admission charges and the end of public exhibitions.

This has been on the agenda for a while now, but it’s still not getting enough attention.  Rolling back the work of the British Library would be a bad thing, especially given its recent efforts at opening up access policies and heading towards a strategy for non-print collection management.  When, oh when, will libraries appear in the news other than when fighting more planned cutbacks?

David McMunn is the “Director of Government, Regulatory and Legal Affairs” at Irish private-sector television channel TV3. With regard to the first two, at least, his job seems to be to minimise the impact of both government and regulator on TV3’s affairs. So what he has to say about Ireland’s proposed new Broadcasting Act (currently a Bill, winding its way through the Dáil and the subject of interesting e-consultation experiments) will be of quite some interest to media watchers!

He’s speaking in the evening stream of the Dublin Legal Workshop this Tuesday coming (13th February), following on from Prof. Gavin Phillipson’s recent presentation on developments in privacy law. His presentation is entitled: “The Broadcast Bill 2006. The Tooth Fairy - Judge, Jury and Executioner”. A provocative title - especially given TV3’s long record of calling for reform of broadcasting legislation.

I have to admit to being neither a fan of TV3’s programming or lobbying position, but David’s talk promises to be infomative, and a helpful aid towards understanding the complexity of the issues in the Bill. As you’ll discover if you try and make sense of the econsultation documents, there are all sorts of issues thrown together. If he manages to uncover a guiding principle or philosophy - or even suggest one - he will have succeeded where many others have failed! (Unfortunately I cannot be there myself, I’m bizet with a prior arrangement. If you are going, please blog it!)

6pm, School of Law, Trinity College - room 11 in House 39 (directions)