real6
03-03-2009, 03:13 PM
WOW....
http://cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/44941-license-dodgers-beware-the-peeping-inspector-could-be-lurking.html
License dodgers beware, the peeping inspector could come lurking
A new proposal could legitimise officials kneeling at your door and peeking through your letter box
A new proposal by Culture Minister Carina Christensen aims to allow state media licence inspectors to spy on residents to determine whether or not they are obligated to pay the national media license fee, reports Politiken newspaper.
According to the proposal, inspectors would be allowed to look in people’s windows and listen at their doors to find out if they have a television or radio operating. Christensen’s idea requires a change to the Radio and Television Act and would require parliamentary approval.
With few exceptions people are required to pay a media licence fee of 2,200 kroner a year for the permission to own a TV, radio or computer. The ministry has for years expressed problems with the many people nationwide who manage to avoid paying this fee.
Figures from public broadcaster DR, which administers the fee, indicate that measures taken to enforce payment have cost 220 million kroner over the past five years. Licence fees brought in a total of 3.8 billion kroner in 2007. Some experts believe that the new proposal is a futile attempt to catch fee dodgers. Instead, they suggest the fee be covered by taxes, since nearly every household and business has at least one of the three apparatuses concerned.
‘Especially in a time where green fees are becoming more commonplace, the media licence fee ought to be dealt with through an energy tax,’ said Oluf Jørgensen, law expert at the Danish School of Media and Journalism.
In addition to the ‘spy’ clause, the new proposal also includes measures to allow for monthly licensing payments and other changes relating to the switchover of all the country’s radio and television broadcasts to digital format as of 1 November.
http://cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/44941-license-dodgers-beware-the-peeping-inspector-could-be-lurking.html
License dodgers beware, the peeping inspector could come lurking
A new proposal could legitimise officials kneeling at your door and peeking through your letter box
A new proposal by Culture Minister Carina Christensen aims to allow state media licence inspectors to spy on residents to determine whether or not they are obligated to pay the national media license fee, reports Politiken newspaper.
According to the proposal, inspectors would be allowed to look in people’s windows and listen at their doors to find out if they have a television or radio operating. Christensen’s idea requires a change to the Radio and Television Act and would require parliamentary approval.
With few exceptions people are required to pay a media licence fee of 2,200 kroner a year for the permission to own a TV, radio or computer. The ministry has for years expressed problems with the many people nationwide who manage to avoid paying this fee.
Figures from public broadcaster DR, which administers the fee, indicate that measures taken to enforce payment have cost 220 million kroner over the past five years. Licence fees brought in a total of 3.8 billion kroner in 2007. Some experts believe that the new proposal is a futile attempt to catch fee dodgers. Instead, they suggest the fee be covered by taxes, since nearly every household and business has at least one of the three apparatuses concerned.
‘Especially in a time where green fees are becoming more commonplace, the media licence fee ought to be dealt with through an energy tax,’ said Oluf Jørgensen, law expert at the Danish School of Media and Journalism.
In addition to the ‘spy’ clause, the new proposal also includes measures to allow for monthly licensing payments and other changes relating to the switchover of all the country’s radio and television broadcasts to digital format as of 1 November.