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The new rules for product placement are without doubt creating problems for public-sector broadcasters in Belgium. Following on from the two cases involving VRT (see IRIS 2010-5: 1/9 and IRIS 2010-7: 1/7), it is now the turn of RTBF to be ordered by the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory body - CSA) to pay a fine of EUR 10,000 and to broadcast a communiqué for having failed to observe the statutory provisions concerning product placement. In February 2010, to mark the Chinese New Year, RTBF broadcast a daily micro-programme devoted to Eastern cookery entitled “A table on...

The Vlaamse Raad voor de Journalistiek (Flemish Council for Journalism Ethics) has issued a directive (15 April 2010) on identification in a judicial context. This Council is an independent self-regulating institution that supervises journalistic work in all Flemish media upon the filing of a complaint by a member of the public, thereby guaranteeing that journalistic ethics are upheld. It can also issue ethical directives and recommendations on its own initiative. The new ethical directive is concerned with the way the media deal with suspects, persons convicted of a crime and victims in news coverage....

On 26 April 2010, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media - monitoring and enforcement of media regulation) again addressed the public broadcasting corporation VRT for breach of the regulation on product placement. The violation once again occurred in the Sunday morning information programme ‘De Zevende Dag’ (freely translated, ‘The Seventh Day’) (see “Public Broadcaster, Shocking Images, and Product Placement”, see IRIS 2010-5: 1/9). A report focusing exclusively on the opening of the new restaurant ‘Kwint’ in Brussels and lasting approximately three minutes was broadcast...

On 22 March 2010, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media) twice rapped the commercial broadcasting organisation SBS Belgium over the knuckles for breaches of various rules on advertising. In the first decision, the Algemene Kamer (General Chamber) considered an allegation made by its research group according to which SBS Belgium had infringed the rule that the share of television advertisements and teleshopping advertisements may not exceed twenty percent of or 12 minutes per each clock hour (Article 81, §2 of the Media Decree). The total share of two advertising slots...

On 29 March 2010, 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) considered a complaint regarding a teletext message on the public broadcaster VRT that covered the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The message amongst others contained the phrase “In Auschwitz zijn zeker 1,1 miljoen mensen omgekomen” (freely translated, “In Auschwitz, at least 1,1 million human beings deceased”). According to the plaintiff,...