§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will propose, at the United Nations General Assembly, that a convention to prevent jamming of trans-frontier television be drafted, including a mechanism for enforcement, and that in the meanwhile the General Assembly should commission a report on interference with transmissions and the technological means of detecting the origin of jamming signals. [HL3672]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)Cross-border interference to radiocommunication services is a matter for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialised agency of the United Nations. The constitution of the ITU contains a provision which states that: "All stations, whatever their purposes, must be established and operated in such a manner as not to cause harmful interference to the radio services or communications of other Members … which operate in accordance with the provisions of the Radio Regulations". The International Radio Regulations, which are produced by the ITU and have treaty status, contain formal procedures for the elimination of harmful interference on an administration-to-administration basis and these procedures have very recently been amended134WA to include cases of deliberate harmful interference. To aid the process of establishing the source of harmful interference to satellite networks, the ITU's 1997 World Radiocommunication Conference proposed the establishment of a global satellite monitoring network, although it is too early to say whether this will be implemented effectively.