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After long and difficult negotiations between the public broadcasting organisation VRT and the Flemish Government, a new agreement has been reached on the specific rules and conditions for the allocation of public finances to the VRT. According to Articles 15-17 of the Flemish Broadcasting Act, such an agreement between the VRT and the Flemish Government is necessary for each new period of five years. The new executive agreement will replace the agreement for 1997-2001. The agreement emphasises the "mission statement" of the VRT, as formulated in the Flemish Broadcasting Act (Article 8), with...

By an Act of 6 July 2001, the Flemish Parliament has abrogated the provisions in the Flemish Broadcasting Act guaranteeing the direct access of political parties to public broadcasting. According to Article 27ter and 27quater of the Broadcasting Act 1995 (as amended) and a Decree of the Flemish Government of 15 October 1999, every political party represented in the Flemish Parliament was guaranteed access to public radio and television (VRT) to broadcast their political messages on a regular basis. The VRT was obliged to broadcast programmes produced by the political parties for two ten-minute...

In a judgment of 17 November 2000, the Hasselt Criminal Court convicted a person who was found in possession of pictures and software containing images of sexual behaviour of a pornographic character featuring minors aged under 16. He was convicted under Article 383bis of the Criminal Code. Two Internet Service Providers (ISPs) whose infrastructure and services had been used to distribute and receive the illegal content on the Internet were not convicted. The Court referred to the basic rules of the Belgian Collaboration Protocol to Help Stamp Out Illegal Acts on the Internet (see IRIS 1999-7:...

A judgment of 13 February 2001 of the Brussels Court of Appeal has overruled a judgment of the Commercial Court of 2 November 2000 ordering the Internet Service Provider Belgacom/Skynet, at the request of IFPI/NV Universal, to remove hyperlinks pointing to illegal MP3 files from its server. The Court of Appeal was of the opinion that the refusal to remove hyperlinks to files allegedly in breach of copyright and neighbouring rights at the demand of the rightsholders may be considered an act of unfair competition. However, removal is only obligatory under certain conditions that were developed in...

Public opinion in Belgium has been ruffled recently by the latest advertising spot for the temporary employment company Adecco. This shows a rather unattractive and overweight employer in his fifties doing a striptease in front of a girl, ending up wearing nothing but a contract, which she then signs. Although private television channels were continuing to broadcast the spot regularly, RTBF had withdrawn it in December after there had been considerable indignant reaction on the part of viewers to its first showing. Adecco was not pleased with this, and had applied to the district court of Brussels...