North Macedonia

[MK] Cable Service under Discussion

IRIS 2005-9:1/28

Stefanie Mattes

Lawyer, Karlsruhe

After initial problems linked to copyright issues and the inclusion of broadcasters HRT1 and HRT2 were resolved, the Macedonian Broadcasting Council has expressed some new concerns about the range of cable channels available in Macedonia. These doubts were triggered by a call from the Association of Electronic Media for broadcasters HTV1 and RTL to be excluded from the cable service. The Broadcasting Council stated that there were no legal grounds for refusing to carry the two channels. The Macedonian people were entitled to receive as many channels as possible. The Broadcasting Council added that attempts to prevent broadcasters from broadcasting via cable on account of alleged competition law breaches amounted to a violation of current EC law. Such action contravened the provisions of the "Television Without Frontiers" Directive and the Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television. With copyright conditions for certain broadcasters, including DSF and Premiere, still unclear, the Broadcasting Council stressed that if channels were broadcast illegally, it would ask the Culture Minister to investigate and impose heavy fines.