Dear readers,
Tomorrow the Cannes Film Festival will once more roll out its red carpet, and while movie stars will be climbing the stairs that lead to the Grand Théâtre Lumière, a myriad of cinema professionals will be busy trading films at the Cannes Film Market, which takes place in parallel.
The money that makes the cinema world go round in Europe includes public money. This issue of IRIS reports on some important developments concerning public aid for film and audiovisual production at a national level: the announcement of the extension of the UK tax credit scheme (previously available only to film production) to high-end television productions, video games and animation, a new law for cinema and Audiovisual of the Lazio Region in Italy and a Swiss programme to promote the diversity of films on offer and the digitisation of Swiss cinema theatres.
At a European level, the EU Commission has launched a public consultation on the future state aid assessment criteria for member states' film support schemes, inviting stakeholders to comment on the recently published draft Cinema Communication. Due to be adopted before the end of 2012, this Communication will have a profound impact on the way public funding schemes function, so we have decided to deal with this topic not only on these pages but also in our newest IRIS plus, named “The Future of State Aid”. You will find more information about this publication here:
http://www.obs.coe.int/oea_publ/iris/iris_plus/2012-3.html
The future of state aid will also be the topic of the conference that the Observatory will hold next Saturday in Cannes, see:
http://www.obs.coe.int/about/oea/pr/mif2012.html
We hope to see you there!
Susanne Nikoltchev, Editor
European Audiovisual Observatory
For the facts of this case we refer to IRIS 2010-10/1 in which the Court’s Chamber judgment of 27 July 2010 was reported. In essence Mr. Mustafa Aksu, who is of Roma/Gypsy origin, complained in Strasbourg that two publications financed or supported by the Ministry of Culture in Turkey, had ...
In a judgment of 9 February 2012 the European Court has ruled that Sweden did not violate the right to freedom of expression in a case about ‘hate speech’. The criminal conviction of the applicants for distributing leaflets that contained anti-gay offensive statements was considered necessary in ...
On 4 April 2012, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers (CM) adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)4 on the protection of human rights with regard to social networking services.
The CM notes in the Recommendation that social networking services (SNSs) are important for the effective ...
On 4 April 2012, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe issued a recommendation to the member states on the protection of human rights with regard to search engines.
The recommendation acknowledges the importance of search engines in the online environment. It points to the ...
On 14 March 2012 the European Commission launched a public consultation on the state aid assessment criteria for member states' film support schemes in the future. The current criteria for the compatibility of national, regional and local film and audiovisual support schemes with EU state aid ...
On 21 March 2012 the European Commission gave the green light for the national scheme to digitise France’s film heritage (see IRIS 2011-7/23). The national centre for cinematography and animated images (Centre National de la Cinéma et de l’image animée - CNC) has been instructed to ...
According to media reports, on 25 April 2012 several subsidiaries of the television broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), various stations of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Union of German Public Service ...
On 31 December 2011 at 20:20h, the film “Ratatouille” was broadcast on VTM, a Flemish commercial broadcaster. This movie was interrupted three times for advertising breaks. Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Media Regulator - VRM) received a complaint. According to the plaintiff, ...
On 21 February 2012 the Administrative Court in Sofia confirmed a penal provision issued on 12 May 2010 by the Chairperson of the State Commission on Gambling (SCG) which imposed an administrative penalty on Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile, joint-stock company Globul. The penalty amounted to BGN 50,000 ...
On 9 March 2012 the Swiss Ministry of Culture (Office Fédéral de la Culture - OFC) recently adopted a programme intended to promote the diversity of films on offer and the digitisation of cinema theatres in Switzerland. Cinema operators switching to ...
On 22 September 2011, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH), in a decision not published until recently, ruled on a dispute over a claim for additional remuneration in accordance with Article 32a of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG).
In the case ...
On 28 March 2012, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) held that a decision issued in 2008 banning two journalists from photographing on-duty police officers was unlawful.
Members of a special police task force (SEK) were accompanying a prisoner ...
In two rulings of 14 March 2012, the Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht (Hanseatic Appeals Court - OLG) prohibited the file-hosting site Rapidshare from making certain copyrighted content available to its users.
The judges therefore upheld the decision of the Landgericht ...
On 29 March 2012, the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament), with the votes of the governing parties, adopted without any amendments a bill strengthening the freedom of the press (PrStG) (see IRIS 2010-9/22).
The bill is designed to strengthen the freedom of the press by ...
On 20 March 2012, the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht der Landesmedienanstalten (Media Licensing and Monitoring Commission - ZAK) filed another complaint that the “Show zum Tag des Glücks”, broadcast by TV broadcaster “Das Vierte”, infringed the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag ...
In a decision of 7 March 2012, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz der Landesmedienanstalten (Land Media Authorities’ Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media - KJM) agreed to broaden the powers of Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Fernsehen (Voluntary ...
The Bundesministerium für Familien, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth - BMFSFJ) has announced plans to initiate an amendment to the Jugendschutzgesetz (Youth Protection Act - JuSchG) in the near future.
Under the ...
The media group RTL Deutschland and the Fachverband für Rundfunkempfangs- und Kabelanlagen (Association for Broadcasting Reception and Cable Equipment - FRK) are reported to have signed a framework agreement on cable retransmission rights at the end of March 2012.
The FRK ...
On 25 April 2012, a proposal of the committee on press crimes, unwanted communication and stalking was officially published. The committee's task was to assess the need to reform the "press crimes" legislation taking into consideration the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. ...
On 13 April 2012 the regional court in Paris delivered a judgment under the urgent procedure in a case concerning the comedian Dieudonné. A video entitled Dieudonné l’antisémite - Les camps de concentration (Dieudonné the anti-Semite - the concentration camps), produced and directed by ...
France has been through a national tragedy, with the murder of three children and their teacher outside a Jewish school in Toulouse on the morning of 19 March 2012, coming just days after attacks resulted in the death of three soldiers in nearby towns. The killer was quickly identified and ...
On 17 April 2012, the French competition authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) announced the start of a thorough investigation into the acquisition by the Canal Plus Group of the DTV channels Direct 8 and Direct Star. On 5 December 2011 France’s main pay-TV operator notified its ...
BT and TalkTalk, internet service providers, were unsuccessful in their appeal against the decision of the High Court last year that provisions in the Digital Economy Act 2010 were not in breach of EU law (see IRIS 2011-6/20).
The provisions impose obligations on Internet Service ...
A company which sold mattresses made the following claim on one of its websites regarding its products: that they were “as seen on TV”.
The sole complainant challenged whether that claim “As seen in” misleadingly implied that the mattress had featured in editorials or product reviews in ...
In his annual budget statement, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that he is extending the tax credit scheme, previously available to film production (see IRIS 2012-1/29), to high-end television productions, video games and animation. This will be subject to state aid approval and a ...
On 26 March 2012, the Minister of State, Pantelis Kapsis, presented before the Special Permanent Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Greek Parliament a bill on restructuring the Greek Public Service Provider, ERT. This initiative of the Minister of State does not aim at the ...
The most important switch off of analogue television signal is to be held in Attica region next July (6 July 2012) according to a ministerial decision of 20 March 2012. This operation is expected to enhance the legislative level that has been ceased since the publication of the first ...
On 7 March 2012 the Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) upheld a complaint made by a former candidate for the office of President of Ireland. The complaint concerned the use of an unverified tweet during a live televised debate just three days prior to polling. ...
On 14 March 2012 the “Regione Lazio” in Italy adopted a reform (known as "Interventi Regionali per il Cinema e l’Audiovisivo"), aimed at promoting cinema and audiovisual fields according to Articles 21 and 33 of the Italian Constitution. Essentially, the regional government aim is to support the ...
On 15 March 2012 the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (Italian Communications authority - AGCOM) gave final approval to a resolution concerning the list of events of major importance to society, pursuant to Article 32-ter of the Italian audiovisual and radio media services ...
On 22 February 2012 the Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (the Italian Communications Authority - AGCOM) adopted Resolution no. 93/12/CONS concerning the plan for the allocation of frequencies for digital terrestrial television services in the five Italian regions of Abruzzo, ...
On 12 January 2012, the Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (Italian Communications Authority - Agcom) adopted Resolution no. 1/12/CONS (hereinafter “The Resolution”), on next generation network access services (NGA), in accordance with the comments of the European Commission and ...
With the analogue switch off deadline set for 1 June 2013 the Macedonian authorities have a quite challenging task to reform the legislative framework, which shall allow smooth transition from analogue into digital broadcasting without endangering media pluralism.
The latest amendments to ...
On 7 February 2012, In Smash Communications Limited vs. Broadcasting Authority et, decided by the Civil Court, First Hall, the court concluded that the present system established in the Broadcasting Act regulating the imposition of administrative sanctions by the Broadcasting Authority was in ...
The list of public interest events that must be broadcast by national terrestrial open access television channels was published on 22 March 2012 in the official Portuguese news bulletin, Diário da República (2ª Série, nº 59, Parte C).
Amongst the twelve topics that compose this list, ...
The Romanian Government approved on 3 April 2012 an Emergency Decree for the modification and completion of Legea nr. 506/2004 privind prelucrarea datelor cu caracter personal şi protecţia vieţii private în sectorul comunicaţiilor electronice (Law no. 506/2004 with regard to the ...
The President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev by his decree of 17 April 2012 set legal conditions to establish a TV channel “Public Television of Russia.” Its aim shall be to inform population “in a timely, trustworthy and all-sided manner on current affairs of domestic and foreign ...
On 23 November 2011 the Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission of the Slovak Republic (“Council”) issued a decision concerning a complaint against “Internet TV” run at www.tnitv.weebly.com. The given service was labelled as “Internet TV of the city of Trencin” and provided a list of short ...