Search results : 237

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,...

In two recent decisions, both chambers of the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media - monitoring and enforcement of media regulation) condemned the public broadcasting corporation VRT for breach of the Flemish media regulation. On 19 January 2010, the Kamer voor Onpartijdigheid en Bescherming van Minderjarigen (Chamber for Impartiality and the Protection of Minors) rendered a decision regarding the transmission of a trailer around 8 p.m., just before the beginning of the family series ‘Dieren in Nesten’ (freely translated, ‘Animals in Trouble’). This series follows the...

It was nothing new for Belgium - the legislator and a number of users have felt for some time that some collecting societies were not operating in a transparent fashion and were abusing their dominant position. A number of bills have been tabled over the past ten years and more, aimed at reinforcing the supervision of collecting societies, but none has ever been adopted. The Act of 10 December 2009 was gazetted (published in the Moniteur Belge) on 23 December 2009, and came into force on 1 April 2010. The new Act confirms that collecting societies are required to manage the rights recognised by...

On 18 January 2010, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media) rendered two decisions concerning SBS Belgium, in which it concluded there had been violations of the new rules on product placement and sponsorship. These are the first decisions in which these topics have been considered under the new Flemish Media Decree, in force only since 1 September 2009. The first decision dealt with two instances of product placement in two distinct episodes of the programme ‘The Block Ghent’. In particular, the requirement that programmes that contain product placement should not...