91Èȱ¬

On air: Cyber War / Suicide On TV

| Tuesday, 6 June 2011 | 17:44 - 20:30 GMT

In the 1700G edition of the programme, we're looking at two hot topics. First: How threatened do you feel by cyber war? According to Reuters, South Korea announced today that it's drawing up a cyber security master plan to protect itself after a wave of attacks. Meanwhile a minister in Indonesia says they face more than a million hacker attacks every day.

And the US is taking action too. At the start of this month, the Pentagon said it was drawing up plans to categorise cyber attacks as an act of war. That means it could respond to a major attack with conventional missile strikes or cyber retaliation. And a few days ago, CIA chief Leon Panetta said the next Pearl Harbour could be a cyber attack.

The corporate world is also worried. Sony, Lockheed Martin and the IMF have all been in the news recently because of cyber hackers. But is the term "cyber war" really fair - and accurate? Is it as threatening as conventional war? How worried are you?

And we'll also be asking:
Should suicide be shown on TV?

Last night the 91Èȱ¬ broadcast a controversial documentary which showed the suicide of a terminally ill man. It was presented by the writer Sir Terry Pratchett who says the experience hasn't altered his views on the subject. The 91Èȱ¬ says it hopes the programme will allow people to make up their own minds.

The whole issue of assisted suicide is one we've debated before on the programme. But we wanted to focus this time on whether or not a real suicide is beyond the limits of what television should show - and what affect it might have.

If you have a comment or a question, do get in touch. Look forward to talking to you soon.

Your comments

  1. Comment sent via Facebook

    <p> Jaime in Amsterdam: Good that the 91Èȱ¬ presented the issue -- debate is always good in a modern and free society.</p>

  2. Comment sent via SMS

    ’World we’ll have your say for you’ 52 minutes of you and your invited guests 3 or 4 minutes of ’online comments.’ Think you need to change the name to ’just another boring talk show’ peter nairobi

  3. Comment sent via host

    Ben J here - moving on to talking about whether it''s ever right to show suicide on TV, following a film broadcast in the UK depicting assisted suicide.

  4. Comment sent via BLOG

    <p> Stefan in Prague emails: If somebody is smart enough to hack into such secure systems, they could certainly make it look like it came from somewhere other than where it really originated.</p>

  5. Comment sent via unknown: 23057

    @91Èȱ¬_WHYS So - according to the USA definition - the authors of the Stuxnet Trojan already declared #cyber war on Iran.

  6. Comment sent via unknown: 23057

    @91Èȱ¬_WHYS Look at stuxnet. Real, physical damage was caused. I think such an attack can and should be classified as an act of war.