Recent developments in media policy reflect the ever more pivotal role of the Internet in the economic, social and cultural fabric of contemporary society. During the past year policy-makers have paid a great deal of attention to issues directly or indirectly related to the Internet, often stirring wide-spread calls for protection of privacy and civil liberties as well as for equitable access to the Internet and the knowledge it carries.
Much of this debate has been conducted via the Internet, which shows the Net’s increasingly important role in the very process of policy-making too, prying it open to new contributors such as bloggers, advocacy groups and others interested in the issue at hand.