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At its meeting on 11 April 2023, the Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (Commission on Concentration in the Media - KEK) decided to amend the Meldepflicht-Richtlinie (directive on notification of ownership structures) adopted on 11 May 2021. Previously, only minor changes to participating interests or other types of influence were exempt from the obligation to report changes, laid down in Article 63 sentence 1 of the Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV). Now, a further exemption applies to changes that are not minor per se, but that relate to companies...

On 24 March 2023, in order to meet the challenges of protecting young people in the media in the 21st century, media regulators from Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Cyprus set up an international working group on age verification, which will meet regularly to exchange information about topical issues related to youth protection in the media. They published a joint statement that sets out the main elements of their future cooperation. The working group’s current members are the French Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique...

The Rundrunkrat (Broadcasting Council) of Radio Bremen, the smallest of the nine public service broadcasters that make up the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German Association of Public Service Broadcasters – ARD), adopted a resolution on the further development of public service broadcasting at its meeting on 16 March 2023. Like Saarländische Rundfunk (Saarland broadcasting corporation), Radio Bremen has been the subject of numerous merger-related discussions and demands. The Rundfunkrat believes it has a duty...

On 16 March 2023, the heads of government of the German Länder adopted the draft Vierte Medienänderungsstaatsvertrag (fourth state treaty amending the state media treaty), which includes provisions designed to strengthen compliance, transparency and supervision in public service broadcasting. The proposed amendment of the state media treaty contains standard rules in these areas that will apply to the state broadcasters that comprise the ARD, as well as ZDF and Deutschlandradio. The draft treaty will now be submitted to the state parliaments for preliminary consultation before being...

On 27 February 2023, the Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture – BMEL) presented the key elements of a proposed bill prohibiting the advertising of foods with high sugar, fat or salt content. The BMEL’s initiative follows the discovery that food advertising aimed at children very often promotes highly processed foods that contain excessive levels of these ingredients. Excessive consumption of such foods contributes to diet-related diseases (e.g. obesity, diabetes) that have high societal costs. Food advertising has a lasting...