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In the autumn of 2003, the Norwegian Media Authority sanctioned the national commercial broadcaster, TV2, and a local television company with fines for having broadcast political advertising in breach of the ban. The Norwegian Broadcasting Act prohibits political and religious advertising on television. The advertising in question was for a political party in connection with an election campaign. The local broadcaster brought the case before the municipal court, claiming that the Authority's decision, and thus also the ban, represented an infringement of the fundamental right of freedom of speech...

On 11 February this year the NorwegianMinistry of Culture and Church Affairssubmitted its long awaited white paper on amendments to the Norwegian Copyright Act. The purpose of this white paper is primarily to implement the changes needed, in order to bring Norwegian copyright law into line with the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD - see IRIS 2001-5: 3) and hence fulfil Norway's obligations as an EEA-state. This will at the same time make Norwegian copyright law conform with the two WIPO treaties of 1996. The proposal includes some minor adjustments to the definitions of the copyright holder's exclusive...

In conjunction with the passing of the 2005 State budget Norway's Parliament has introduced Value-Added Tax (VAT) on cinema tickets at a rate of 7%. The move follows pressure from Parliament's Committee on Cultural Affairs (see IRIS 2004-7: 14) to introduce the measure, which is aimed at improving film production cash flow by allowing full VAT refunds to be claimed by producers of films that are released theatrically. Following the decision, Norway's County Tax Collection Bureaux (which handle tax matters locally) have decreed that from 1 January 2005 all feature film production will be eligible...

Following last year's Green Paper, which reviewed current production support scheme practices (see IRIS 2004-4: 14), the Norwegian government on 28 January 2005 announced amendments to the Regulations on Support for Audiovisual Productions (Regulations of 20 November 2003 no. 174). The amended Regulations entered into force on 1 February 2005. The new Regulations represent a moderate tightening of the conditions for support and reimbursement: Calculation of the base for reimbursement of soft-loan support will from now on also include the producer's (stipulated) income from secondary exploitation...

When last autumn the Norwegian Parliament amended Article 100 of the Norwegian Constitution (see IRIS 2004-9: 15) which guarantees freedom of expression, the parliamentarians adopted a wording which also restricts the power of local communities to set quality standards for local cinema exhibition practice. Operating a cinema in Norway requires a municipal licence. It has been standard practice for municipalities to grant such licences on condition that the exhibitor undertakes certain cultural obligations in his/her programming, most commonly expressed as a requirement on the exhibitor to maintain...