Media Brief
I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.
The Digital Economy Bill was rushed through its second reading in the House of Commons last night, ahead of the election - despite attempts to block controversial measures to curb illegal downloading, the . The Commons Leader Harriet Harman said these would face further scrutiny before becoming law.
The Conservatives said they would remove "flawed" elements of the Bill if they came to power .
Government plans for a 50p a month phone tax to pay for the spread of broadband have been dropped, in the "washup" negotiations ahead of the election. So have plans to reform lawyers' libel charges, after a revolt by Labour MPs and the .
MPs on the Public Accounts Committee say the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not "properly held to account" for the way it spends billions of pounds of public money. The and the that ministers say confidentiality agreements between the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and top stars are "putting public money beyond the scrutiny of... Parliament." The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust said it took its duty "to ensure value for money for licence fee-payers very seriously".
AOL is selling the Bebo social networking site just two years after buying it . It could be shut down. It's much less popular in the US than in the UK, where it is second only to Facebook.
The first day of election campaigning dominates the papers as .
Links in full
• Read Tuesday's Media Brief
• Read