We were first made aware of the new proposal to regulate bloggers in Europe from a report on dn.se (EU vill registrera bloggare). Drafted by "Estonian Socialist" Marianne Mikko it sees a risk in the unregulated power of bloggers to influence and put undue pressure on the journalistic profession as well as political events. This report specifically cites "User-Generated" content, which extends to Photos, Videos and Text. The report considers this "free" influence, anonymously exercised by unregulated individuals, possibly to the extent of lobbying on behalf of companies or organizations that are a potential threats to democracy. In order to provide more transparency the Culture Committee is recommending a system of regulation to uncover who is blogging, and why they are blogging. The idea is that, in the EU you will not be able to have a "Blog" without the consent and okay of the government. The definition of "blog" is not very specific and many are wondering if this extends to social networking in general. The EU parliament will have a vote on these new measures September 22, 2008. We did web searches on the nytimes.com for "Marianne Mikko" and were surprised to find nothing. 
We also looked on the BBC's website: 
And then on CNN's website: 
It is a really strange that such a big story is not being covered by the mainstream media in America or Britain. But with the gas prices so high, and the negative influence of the housing situation the media must be occupied with so much other big news that they no longer report on issues that relate to factors that really affect the economic health of the world - the freedom to engage one another without the government's permission. for further information see: europarl.europa.eu further comments: telegraph.co.uk/bruno_waterfield/
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