The Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) has abruptly scrapped its proposal to regulate electioneering activities on websites. The announcement came a month after public consultation began, revealing the guideline was unpopular, unrealistic and hard to execute.
The EAC on Thursday published guidelines on subsector elections of the Election Committee to be held in December and the 2012 Legislative Council (LegCo) geographical constituency elections.
After highlighting the contents of the two sets of election guidelines at a media conference, EAC Chairman Barnabas Fung said the proposed guidelines to regulate online electioneering activities announced in May will not be implemented.
Most of the written submissions and oral submissions at an open forum strongly opposed the proposal to extend existing regulations covering TV and radio stations to online media, he disclosed.
Radio and TV stations use public broadcasting band widths that are public assets while the Internet is a totally open platform on which everyone can broadcast programs, he said.
He added there is no consensus on regulation of online electioneering activities.
After careful consideration, the EAC decided to drop the proposal, he said.
Full Article: Web plan dumped by electoral commission.