What has the internet done to our thinking and writing? Have blogs been good for intellectual life, or bad?

These are difficult questions, often hotly disputed on the web itself. Some people hate the blogosphere with very good reason. But few would go so far as the thought-policing EU, which now apparently wants to censor bloggers.

According to EU Referendum, Estonian Socialist–it had to be an Estonian Socialist didn’t it?–Marianne Mikko has issued a stern report about the “malicious intent” and “hidden agenda” of certain blogs. Her report has been approved by the EU’s Culture Committee.

Speaking about her report, Ms Mikko told us “the blogosphere has so far been a haven of good intentions and relatively honest dealing. However, with blogs becoming commonplace, less principled people will want to use them”.
Asked if she considered bloggers to be “a threat”, she said “we do not see the bloggers as a threat. They are in position, however, to considerably pollute cyberspace. We already have too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent in cyberspace”. She added, “I think the public is still very trusting towards blogs, it is still seen as sincere. And it should remain sincere. For that we need a quality mark, a disclosure of who is really writing and why.”

Sinister.