The complaints of three companies about allegedly anti-competitive behaviour prompt conservative daily ABC to criticise Google's free distribution of media content: "Even if the search engine company insists on its formal arguments: making the content of digital media available to users free of charge is much more than just adding links to news sites. After all Google can make money by promoting certain links that are then logically in a better position than others. It is not legitimate to make money from the editorial work of others - which consists in selecting, processing and evaluating the news and which naturally entails the media investing human and financial resources - without giving anything in return." (25/02/2010)

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Among other things Google's Streetview service shows 360-degree panorama images of city streets. The left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung calls this an attack on the private sphere, and welcomes political intervention: "Once everybody's darling, Google has become increasingly unloved in its second decade. ... With its Buzz service the company has shown that it puts technical achievements above its customers' privacy, and it's the same with Streetview. Certainly, many people won't object to their house being viewed from the outside on the Internet. But many others will. Google pays too little attention to such concerns, casting opponents to Streetview as sticks-in-the-mud. But much information is too significant to be put in the hands of a single company. Unfortunately the competition can't get its act together. In such a situation it's right for politics to intervene." (25/02/2010)

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All available articles from » Thorsten Riedl

In the trial over a video on YouTube that showed a handicapped youth being bullied, three Google executives have each been given six months' suspended sentences by a court in Milan. This ruling sets a dangerous precedent, writes Vittorio Zambardino in his blog, Scene Digitali: "For a number of reasons Google has become a troublemaker for its competitors. But the 'economic' antipathy should not lead to anti-Google administration of justice or anti-Google laws. Politics and the legal apparatus are seeking ways to bring the novelty of the Internet, which is first and foremost ... a social novelty back into familiar existing territory. But the web can't be forced to comply with existing norms. ... The digital society is a society of free people who are sent to prison when they commit crimes. But they should neither be censored ... nor forced to exercise self-censorship." (25/02/2010)

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All available articles from » Vittorio Zambardino

The growing criticism of Google is directly related to its innovative ideas and its fabulous success, writes the business daily Les Echos: "By definition an innovation is a beneficial rupture, a small miracle for consumers. Who would deny that the life of every individual changed after the appearance of this extraordinary search engine? From that moment we have no longer been alone in the immensity of the Internet. We find our way accompanied by an efficient and intelligent guide. ... If Google had wanted to remain the good Samaritan of the Internet it should have remained a voluntary service like Wikipedia." (25/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Corporations, » Global
All available articles from » Philippe Escande

Since the beginning of the week at least 49 people suspected of being involved in so-called "Operation Sledgehammer" have been arrested. The Turkish government sees the operation as a coup plot while the accused military is describing it as a map exercise. Europe needs to pay more attention to Turkey, the liberal daily Corriere del Ticino remonstrates: "The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which clearly feels offended and repudiated by the negative attitude of certain EU countries toward Turkish accession to the EU, has for some time now been trying to assume a new role in the international community. It seems to increasingly prefer contacts with the Asian and Islamic world, and in Europe some are questioning whether it was perhaps a strategic error to express excessive distrust about Turkey's EU accession. For sure, many Europeans are alarmed by Turkey's more than 70 million inhabitants and the clout the country would have once it got into the control centre in Brussels. But perhaps the gap that is growing between Ankara and Europe owing to the former's new alliances with countries that inspire little confidence should make us even more scared." (25/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU neighbourhood policy, » Turkey
All available articles from » Osvaldo Migotto

Viktor Yanukovych will be sworn in as president of Ukraine on Thursday. The daily Die Presse lists the unpopular but necessary reforms he will face once in office, including cutting subsidies, raising energy prices and reforming the pension system: "Viktor Yanukovych could show that he is anything but a typical Ukrainian Apparatchnik by grabbing the bull by the horns. If he does he will deserve all possible support from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the EU. Notwithstanding, the greatest obstacles to radical reform and a strict austerity policy are to be found within Ukraine: whether it's the country's inefficient and poorly structured political system, the ongoing dispute between political camps or the extremely insalubrious links between the oligarchs and the sphere of politics. But Yanukovych has no interest in attacking the latter, as he himself is widely considered a marionette of the powerful Eastern Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov." (25/02/2010)

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All available articles from » Burkhard Bischof

Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou has announced the founding of a parliamentary committee aimed at establishing who was responsible for the passing on of false data to the EU. The conservative daily Kathimerini doubts the effectiveness of the measure: "Because it is aimed at uncovering the actual facts and creating an efficient state structure it is probably uninteresting as far as the political parties' idea of the 'truth' is concerned. The war which will break out over the question of who falsified the data when and how is of much greater significance for our tottering political 'class'. ... The best thing for everyone would be if the parliamentary committee of economic affairs were entrusted with clearing up the data affair initially. This is, according to the constitution ... the permanent enquiry committee. The new committee is only for the eyes of the world, the media and the Europeans!" (23/02/2010)

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All available articles from » Babis Papadimitriou

The Visegrad Group (V4) met in Budapest on Wednesday. The four members Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary once more have every reason to cooperate, writes the left-liberal daily Népszabadság: "A few years ago cooperation between the Visegrad countries seemed at a standstill. The Group was seen as a regional forum of peripheral significance, with little or nothing to say internationally. ... But then a drastic economic and financial crisis, last winter's gas crisis and the increased clout of the EU with the Treaty of Lisbon turned the tide. The V4 are once more aware that ... their shared problems can better be solved through concerted action. ... Everything indicates that the V4's newfound desire to cooperate has pragmatic, interest-related roots. In any event it's easier to coordinate rational interests than national pipe dreams. That could well point the way forward for the V4." (25/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU neighbourhood policy, » Poland, » Hungary, » Czech Republic, » Slovakia
All available articles from » Tibor Kis

The European Monetary Union started out with ambitious goals but has turned into a straitjacket, writes Domingos Amaral in the daily Correio da Manhã: "If prosperity is the Promised Land, then we haven't arrived yet. If budgetary discipline was one of the expected consequences, we have achieved exactly the opposite. ... Ten years after the common currency adventure began it is high time to start thinking about how to improve the system. ... The euro and its draconic regulations have turned Europe into a government cemetery. It is time we realised that the system doesn't work and that we can still change it. To drop the euro would be catastrophic, but so would leaving everything as it is. It's easy to blame the Greek and Portuguese governments for their irresponsible budgetary policy. But what about the Spanish, who didn't act irresponsibly but nonetheless have problems and are incapable of reacting to the crisis? The drama of the euro is just that: it punishes the good and bad equally but guarantees no one a way out of the crisis. Without a central political power that serves as a guarantee and without flexible rules the euro will remain a straitjacket for rich and poor alike." (24/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Domingos Amaral

The subject of Tibet poses a dilemma for the Western world, writes Leonidas Donskis in his blog on the Lithuanian news portal Delfi: "Tibet has become a source of strange political and moral tensions. Hardly anyone still believes that this country will be able to free itself from China's fetters in the near future and become independent - although no one really knows which direction China will take. But everyone realises that Tibet will be sacrificed if we continue to do nothing. And if this unique ancient culture is allowed to perish it will be a moral loss for the entire world. Civilised politics would be giving in to the law of the jungle and this is why the Tibet problem is not just the Tibentans' problem but also affects all the peoples and politicians of this world. ... Have economic power and technological know-how become a carte blanche to treat your own country as well as non-governmental organisations and human rights activists however you see fit in today's world? ... The impact of China's power and prestige is continually growing and thus increasingly influencing the behaviour and rhetoric of our political class." (25/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Minorities, » Demographics, » Economic Policy, » Asia, » China
All available articles from » Leonidas Donskis

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has announced he will not raise the prime interest rate for the time being. Clearly he wants to avoid getting on the wrong side of Wall Street, writes the business paper De Tijd: "After a year of recovery it seems we've already forgotten the lessons of the crisis. One of these was that the Fed set the stage for the real estate bubble and its subsequent bursting at the start of the last decade by keeping interest rates too low for too long. ... A symbolic rise in interest rates would not be a bad thing. For the economy there's hardly any difference between a rate of zero or half a percent. And investors would get the message that the Fed is not going to put free money at their disposal indefinitely to finance their shenanigans. What we need is a little less zero-tolerance, so that taxpayers won't have to bear the brunt when the next soap bubble bursts." (25/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » U.S.
All available articles from » Kurt Vansteeland

Greece was paralysed on Wednesday by a general strike protesting against the government's strict austerity measures. But the government only has itself to blame for the strike, writes the conservative daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, because it hoodwinked the population for many long years: "Certainly, the Greeks - especially those working in the public sector - have defended their extensive social privileges. But it has now come out that Greece has sunk deep into a morass of dishonesty [for supplying Brussels with falsified budget data]. And the lies were not only directed at the EU, the European Central Bank and Eurostat. Those in power also assured the Greek population that the state was in a position to continue allocating public funds. The woeful effects of this decade-long lie are only now coming to light." (25/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Economic Policy, » Greece, » Europe
All available articles from » Marcin Piasecki

Gays in the Netherlands have filed a charge of discrimination against a Roman Catholic priest after he denied them communion. Dozens of prominent gays now plan to line up to receive the consecrated wafer from conservative Bishop Hurkmans on Sunday in protest. From a moral point of view they are right to do so, writes the left-liberal daily de Volkskrant: "It is a major achievement that nowadays people are accepted more for what they are, even when it comes to their sexual orientation. But for an institution whose influence is based on the central interpretation of a doctrine this is hard to digest, with the consequence that the Church is becoming increasingly distanced from its European followers. This is no reason for the Vatican to change its mind in a hurry. In the Netherlands the churches are growing emptier and emptier, but in the Third World, where conservative views still prevail, the Church is growing." (25/02/2010)

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After abuse scandals rocked the Catholic Church, the Irish are now asking whether religious education in schools should not be replaced by philosophy classes. Educating free minds is the only route to true ethics, writes the daily The Irish Times: "Being smart means looking at the world differently, which is what philosophers have been doing down the centuries. By making philosophy an integral part of the curriculum, students would be actively encouraged to develop a critical mind - a vital prerequisite for any serious attempt to construct a knowledge society. ... Crucial to the notion of the citizen as the cornerstone of a democratic society is that the citizen be informed and discerning." (25/02/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Philosophy, » Weltanschauung, » Social affairs, » Ireland
All available articles from » Michael Cronin