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The Dutch Government has sent a proposal to the parliament that would abolish the existing licence fee system. Based on the present Media Act, every holder of a radio and/or television set has to pay a - national, regional and sometimes also a local - licence fee. This fee is used exclusively to finance the public broadcasting system (consisting of national, regional and local broadcasting). The proposed amendment introduces a special tax that will be collected by the ministry of finance. This tax will be at the same level as the existing licence fee. The main reason for introducing the tax instead...

Further to the «Television without Frontiers» Directive a bill was introduced on 11 October 1999 to modify the Media Act and the Dutch Penal Code (PC), as well as to revoke the Act on Film Showings. The objective of this bill is to better protect young people against audio-visual images which are harmful for them. The starting-point of the proposal is self-regulation. Each audio-visual product will be classified on account of the possible harmfulness of exhibition to the young, under the responsibility of the area of business which puts the products in question on the market. The proposal adopts...

The Netherlands Regulatory Authority for the Telecommunications and Postal sector (OPTA) and the Dutch competition authority (NMa) have published guidelines on access to cable television networks. The NMa has a general authority based on the Competition Act to settle certain types of conflicts. OPTA - based on the Telecommunications Act - has the power to give instructions if the provider of a cable television network and the provider of a programme cannot reach agreement on the access to the programme offered to the cable television network concerned. In the guidelines the two regulators indicate...

On 7 September 1999 the Lower Chamber of Parliament accepted a proposal to amend the Mediawet (Media Act) in connection with the implementation of the amended EC «Television without Frontiers» Directive. The proposal ( Kamerstukken II , 1998/99, 26 256, nrs. 1-3; IRIS 1999-8: 11) was brought before the Lower Chamber of Parliament on 19 October 1998. An important item in the proposal is the insertion of a new chapter IVA in the Media Act, entitled `Events of considerable importance to society'. On the basis of this chapter, events can be designated by Order of Council which a large part of the population...

On 2 July 1999 the government submitted a proposal to the Lower Chamber of Parliament to amend the Media Act ( Mediawet) in connection with the introduction of a new concession system for national public broadcasting. The central theme of the proposal is the reorganisation and integration of the public broadcasting system within the Dutch Broadcasting Foundation ( Nederlandse Omroep Stichting - NOS). In this context the concessions of the individual broadcasting associations, which are due to expire in the year 2000, will be abolished and replaced by a concession for a term of ten years for the...