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Following the Federal State Act (Act of 27 December 2006, published in the Moniteur Belge of 28 December 2006), the Flemish-speaking Community Decree (Decree of 4 May 2007, published in the Moniteur Belge of 2 July 2007) and the German-speaking Community Decree (Decree of 25 June 2007, published in the Moniteur Belge of 6 August 2007), the French-speaking Community has now adopted its Decree of 2 July 2007, published in the Moniteur Belge on 19 September 2007, assenting to the agreement on cooperation in electronic communications concluded on 17 November 2006. The agreement could therefore enter...

On 17 July 2007 the Parliament of the French-speaking Community adopted two decrees amending, in the first instance, the Decree of 27 February 2003 on broadcasting and, in the second instance, the Decree of 14 July 1997 on the statute of the public-sector broadcasting company (RTBF). In both cases the amendments concern advertising. The purpose of the first Decree is to adapt the 2003 Decree (which forms the foundation for broadcasting in the French-speaking Community) to the new realities of the advertising market. The draft of the Decree was tabled by the Government; it is based on the European...

On 16 July 2007, the European Commission decided to approve the prolongation of Belgium’s tax incentive scheme for audiovisual productions (known as the ‘tax shelter’) until 31 December 2009. The Commission’s previous authorisation was due to expire on 30 June 2007. Before this decision, the Commission had already reviewed the Belgian tax shelter twice. In 2003, it declared this scheme compatible with Article 87(3)d of the EC Treaty until 31 December 2004. On 30 June 2004, this authorisation was extended for a further three years. Introduced in 2002, the tax shelter aims at supporting audiovisual...

In May 2007, the extreme-right, anti-immigration party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest - VB) started a lawsuit against all newspapers/publishing groups in the Flemish community in Belgium. The newspapers had all refused to publish the political advertisements of VB in the pre-election period, a few weeks and days before the federal elections of 10 June 2007. The newspapers did, however, publish advertisements from other political parties. Only one newspaper was not targeted by VB: the left-wing orientated De Morgen (the VB probably did not even consider the possibility of having an electorate amongst...

In a decision of 26 June 2007, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media - VRM) is of the opinion that the public television broadcaster VRT has violated Article 111 bis § 1 and 2 of the Decreten betreffende de radio-omroep en de televisie- Mediadecreet (Broadcasting Act). This article obliges all broadcasters in the Flemish Community to observe ideological and philosophical impartiality in information programmes and provides that discrimination is to be avoided between ideological or philosophical ideas. Over and above this impartiality, the VRT is under an obligation...