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On 12 August 2011, the commercial broadcaster VTM filed a complaint with Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Media Regulator - VRM), because the public broadcaster VRT offered the sports part of its news programme, including summaries of Jupiler Pro League (the Belgian national football league) on its website, Sporza.be. VRM ruled that this practice infringes Art. 124 para 4 Mediadecreet (Flemish Broadcasting Act). In June 2011, VTM bought the broadcasting rights of the Jupiler Pro League highlights for the 2011-2014 seasons. In order to guarantee the public’s right to information, the Flemish...

On 24 November 2011 the European Court of Justice delivered its long-awaited judgment on the legality of injunctions obliging ISPs to install filtering systems on their networks for reasons of copyright enforcement. The case involved a dispute between Scarlet Extended SA, an internet access provider operating in Belgium, and the Belgian collective management organisation Société d’Auteurs Belge - Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers - SABAM). SABAM initiated the proceedings alleging that Scarlet (formerly Tiscali) has knowingly permitted the illegal downloading...

The European Commission has requested Belgium and the UK to implement outstanding provisions of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. The AVMS Directive aims at ensuring a single market and legal certainty for Europe’s TV and audiovisual industry. This is done through the creation of a level playing -field for both broadcast and on-demand audiovisual media services across borders, while ensuring cultural diversity, the protection of children and consumers, the safeguarding of media pluralism and combating racial and religious hatred. This Directive is based on the principle of the...

The purpose of the international tax credit instituted by the 2009 Budget and embodied in Art. 220 quaterdecies of the General Tax Code is to make it easier to shoot and manufacture in France cinematographic and audiovisual works originated by a non-French producer and containing elements that attach it to the culture, heritage or territory of France. Thus the tax credit is granted to a company that carries out the executive production of a work in France, subject to the company being approved by the national cinematographic centre (Centre National de la Cinématographie - CNC). The credit represents...

On Sunday 1 May 2011 in the early evening (around 18:20), the programme True Blood was broadcast on the Flemish digital-only channel Acht. This episode contained horrific images, such as a chained man in a dungeon between dead bodies covered with blood. The Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Media Regulator - VRM) ruled that the broadcaster infringed Art. 42, §2 of the Mediadecreet (Flemish Broadcasting Act). Article 42 of the Flemish Broadcasting Act contains rules protecting minors against harmful content. Article 42 §1 includes an absolute ban on linear television programmes that might...