NEW COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES, CONVERGENCE, AND THE LAW

BRIEF CONFERENCE REPORT

• On July 4 and 5, 1998 the Moscow Media Law and Policy Centre organised together with the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy a conference on New Communications Technologies, Convergence and the Law, within the context of the Know How Project CNTR 97 3454.
• The main focus of the conference held at the Faculty of Journalism of the Moscow State University was -for the first time in Russia- on the regulatory implications of the convergence of IT, telecommunications and broadcasting, with special attention to the Internet. The conference was relevant given the current discussion within the State Duma on how to regulate the Internet and given the fact that any proposed legislation concerning for instance broadcasting or telecommunications must take notice of the new technologies and vice versa.
• Conference materials included papers by British participants (e.g. Stefaan Verhulst, Campbell Cowie) translated into Russian. A special issue of the MMLPC journal, ZiP, was published just prior to the conference and distributed among the participants. The materials also included free copies of the ComputerWorld, books on Russian media both in Russian and English. The publishers of Transitions, a monthly magazine on post-Communist societies, has requested the organisers and got the permission to present the magazine to and distribute several issues among the participants. Moreover, web sites of the MMLPC and the Oxford PMLPC were demonstrated to the audience.
• The concept was to offer besides an overview of the current Russian debate and legislative framework, alternative legal models (UK and European) to the key stakeholders (State Duma, State Committee on Communication, Federal Agency of Governmental Communication and Information (FAPSI), and others).
• The Russian input was made by reports of those who determine the discussion in Russia such as Yuri M. Nesterov (Deputy of the State Duma, Vice Chair of the Committee on Informational Policy and Communications), Ivan N. Kurnosov (Deputy Head of Administration of Information, State Committee on Communications and Information), Stepan V.Orlov (Deputy of the Moscow City Duma, coordinator of the issues of information, information security, communication, telecommunication, and television), Larissa L.Yefimova (Duma lawyer, Adviser of the Russian Federation of the 1^st Class), etc. (see Programme)
• The UK, US and European legal models were presented by James Purnell (Special Policy Adviser on media regulation to the Prime Minister of the UK), Julian McCougan (Senior Advisor of the Independent Television Commission), Andrew Graham (Acting Master Balliol College – Oxford), Stefaan Verhulst (Director Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Oxford), David Goldberg (Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Glasgow), Campbell Cowie (London Business School and LECG), Monroe Price (co-director of the Programme in Comparative Media Law- Oxford and Professor at Cardozo Law School – New York) and Mark Stephens (Chairman of Internet Watch Foundation, UK)
• In total, 79 participants were registered, representing all key players such as in house lawyers (e.g. FSTR lawyer and NTV lawyer), think tanks and professional organisations (e.g. the MSU, the National Press Institute), law firms, academics (Journalism faculty of the universities in Ufa, St. Petersburg, Cherkessk, Barnaul, Irkutsk, Kislovodsk, Voronezh, Kazan, Stavropol), State Duma Deputies, representatives of the State Committee on Communication, Federal Broadcasting Service (FSTR), Federal Agency of Governmental Communication and Information (FAPSI), press (such as the ComputerWorld-Russia, VKT cable TV network, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, Kultura weekly, Segodnia daily), officials from Urals branch of the Press Ministry, Internews Network lawyers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and many others.
• The conference certainly succeeded in strengthening the capacity of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Centre. Moreover the debate that took place and the information that was disseminated helped to promote a stable regulatory environment in Russia. The conference helped to direct the MMLPC in its new programme of developing policy recommendations for the government regarding future regulation of telecommunications. The full proceedings of the conference will be published by the MMLPC later this year and will be available at its web site: www.medialaw.ru.