Open Rights Group urges wider consultation on DEA's web blocking measures

The Open Rights Group (ORG) has called on the government to give it and other rights organisations the chance to attend ongoing meetings between ISPs and media groups about possible new web blocking provisions.

The government asked Ofcom in February to reconsider certain aspects of the Digital Economy Act concerning the use of web blocking.

However, Jim Killock, executive director of the ORG, said that, while this was a welcome development, the government now seems determined to press ahead with a new approach to web blocking, rather than abandoning the measure.

Killock has written to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt outlining his belief that not giving a voice to consumer groups would mean that any new ideas would run into problems similar to the original proposals.

"To include only [ISPs and rights holders] means there is a real risk that the flaws of the Digital Economy Act will be repeated," he said.

"The provisions of the Act are flawed precisely because they were designed to satisfy such narrow interests, with little regard for the consequences for civil liberties, human rights and consumer interests or for their workability," he said.

Killock added that it is odd that the government is holding fresh talks with industry groups when the review it initiated from Ofcom is still ongoing, as well as the Hargreaves Review of intellectual property.

"Both of those reviews should be informing the government's position on the justification and workability of such measures," Killock added.

The groups involved in this debate are to meet in court in two weeks' time to discuss the legality of the Digital Economy Act in relation to European law after ISPs TalkTalk and BT won the right to a judicial review following the Act's passing into law in April.