Search results : 237

On 22 November 2022, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Media Regulator — VRM) issued, for the first time, warnings to influencers for violating the rules on commercial communication under the Flemish Media Decree (Article 53). With the transposition, in 2021, of the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive into the Flemish Media Decree, channels and profiles on platform services such as YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok can be considered audiovisual media services or broadcasting services (as per Article 2, 26° of the Flemish Media Decree). This means that content creators,...

On 17 November 2022, the Belgian Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (regulatory authority for the audiovisual sector of the French-speaking Community of Belgium – CSA) published the results of its second study entitled Médias: Attitudes et Perceptions (Media: Attitudes and Perceptions – MAP). Like the first edition published in 2020 (based on 2019 data), the study analyses how the emergence of new forms of audiovisual consumption is changing television usage. It updates the data previously collected and draws comparisons with the results of the previous study. In...

For the second time, the public broadcasting organisation of the French Community in Belgium (Radio-télévision belge de la communauté française — RTBF) successfully invoked its right to freedom of expression before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) (see also IRIS 2011-6/1). In view of the importance of the media in a democratic society, and of the domestic authorities’ limited margin of appreciation in respect of a television programme about a subject of considerable public interest, the ECtHR found that the Belgian courts had not balanced in a pertinent...

A judgment of the Antwerp Court of Appeal of 9 June 2022 offers strong support for investigative journalism on issues of public interest, while at the same time acknowledging the detrimental impact of SLAPPs (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation). The case concerned a complaint by project developer Erik Van der Paal against a journalist of the news site Apache and its chief editor. The chief editor, Karl van den Broeck, and Apache journalist Stef Arends were accused of having stalked Erik Van der Paal of the NV Land Invest Group (Section 422bis Criminal Code) and of violating the...

Every three to six years, the Belgian French-language public broadcasting body (RTBF) negotiates a so-called “management contract” (equivalent to the “contracts of aims and means” in France) with the government of the French-speaking community of Belgium. This contract lays down, on the one hand, RTBF’s public service obligations and, on the other, the financial resources and frequencies allocated to it by the government for the duration of the contract. The next management contract, which will cover the period from 2023 until 2027, is currently being negotiated....