East London Meets Orwell

spiegel: "Do you want to be on TV?" the Web site for Shoreditch TV asks residents of Shoreditch neighborhood in East London. "The local channel makes it possible."

Indeed it does. And it has a number of civil rights activists raising their eyebrows and warning of a total Orwellian state. London, Britain's capital city, is already home to 400,000 closed circuit surveillance cameras.

The Web site's advertising copy is referring specifically to Shoreditch TV's coverage of local neighborhood events. But it could just as easily be pitching the station's controversial new program allowing area residents access to images from closed circuit surveillance cameras mounted throughout the Shoreditch area. The program, launched last Monday, provides viewers with live streaming video from a dozen cameras in the neighborhood for a rate of £3.50 per week. "Local community Web cams let you see what's happening in your area, check out the traffic and keep an eye out for crime," the channel's Internet site claims.

The primary goal of the £12 million program is crime prevention -- parts of the Shoreditch neighborhood have been long plagued by crime and the local police view the channel as a way of making the area safer. Viewers can call local police to report incidents they witness on camera and police will be able to report incidents on the channel. The system is to be expanded to the neighborhood of Hackney in the autumn, according to the BBC, before spreading across London and beyond next year. Read more