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As part of the television information programme “Panorama”, a report covering the illegal trade of antiques from Afghanistan, as well as how this trade is indirectly funding the Taliban, was transmitted on 6 September 2009 by the Flemish public broadcaster (VRT). For the report, a collector was videotaped with a hidden camera in his private home. This man owns a large collection of works of art, from Afghanistan and other places, and, while answering their questions, he revealed some of these to the journalists, who were impersonating interested students. The collector’s face had been blurred,...

On 17 February 2011 the General Court of the European Union issued its ruling in cases T-385/07 and T-68/08 (FIFA v Commission) and case T-55/08 (UEFA v Commission). The cases involved the list of events of major importance for society submitted by the United Kingdom and Belgium to the Commission. The two organisations sought to annul the approving decision of the Commission. Article 3a(1) of the Television without Frontiers Directive (now replaced by Article 14 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive) allows Member States to prohibit the exclusive broadcasting of events they judge to be of...

Until recently, advertising for political parties was banned on audiovisual media services in the French-speaking Community of Belgium. The first sentence of the first paragraph of Article 12 of the Decree by the French-speaking Community of 27 February 2003 on broadcasting (which has since become the Decree of 26 March 2009 on audiovisual media services) provides that “neither political parties nor organisations representative of employers and workers may be the subject of commercial communication”. This provision was cancelled by the Constitutional Court on 22 December 2010 in response to an...

In three recent decisions, the public broadcaster VRT has been rapped over the knuckles for repeatedly transmitting content that has been deemed unsuitable for minors. The first decision (28 September 2010) was rendered by the Kamer voor Onpartijdigheid en Bescherming van Minderjarigen (Chamber for Impartiality and the Protection of Minors) of the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media - monitoring and enforcement of media regulation) and concerned the transmission of a trailer at around 7 pm, just after the popular family quiz programme “Blokken”. The trailer in question...

In three recent decisions, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media - monitoring and enforcement of media regulation) addressed the three major Flemish broadcasters for breach of the advertising regulation. The first decision (18 October 2010) concerned the illegitimate transmission of a television advertisement. On the broadcasting programme VT4, a single spot was shown that featured the presenters holding a party, all of them drinking “Martini Brut”. The bottles and the logo were prominently displayed and, at the end of the programme, a voice-over stated “Beleef een...