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The court of cassation in Brussels had just put an end to a long-standing dispute between RTL-TVI, the main French-language private channel, and RTBF, the public sector French-language broadcaster. In December 1997 the private channel had obtained an order by the presiding judge of the commercial court of Brussels banning the public channel from continuing to insert advertising breaks in the American series "Beverley Hills" and "The Streets of San Francisco". In doing so, the judge had based his argument on a provision of the audiovisual decree of 17 July 1987 which prohibited RTBF from interrupting...

The Flemish public broadcasting organisation VRT has refused to obey a decision of the President of the Brussels Court of First Instance ordering it not to broadcast a scheduled programme containing a political debate (Decision of 4 October 2000, Auteurs & Media, 2000/4, 470; see IRIS 2000-10: 4). The VRT argued that the ban imposed by the ex parte decision was a form of censorship in breach of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression. In a new decision of 16 March 2001, this time after the VRT had been given the opportunity to defend itself ("tierce opposition/derden verzet"), the...

In 1999, after much hesitation, the Government of the French-speaking Community of Belgium adopted a first order designed to protect minors from television broadcasts likely to be damaging to their physical, mental or moral development. It classified broadcasts into four groups, three of which had to be broadcast with a pictogram - programmes subject to parental agreement, programmes banned for anyone under the age of 16, and programmes banned on all but encrypted channels. The identification marking, which corresponds to the Belgian system for classifying films shown in cinemas, was nevertheless...

On 24 January 2001, the Flemish Parliament agreed on some new provisions in the Flemish Broadcasting Act regarding teleshopping. The new provisions create the possibility for private organisations to obtain a licence as a TV-station programming only teleshopping. Until now, the existing commercial TV-broadcasters were allowed to programme teleshopping only within a restricted framework. The new provisions that will soon be published in the Moniteur (Official Journal) create a new type of broadcasting licence allowing a TV-station to programme exclusively teleshopping. At the same time, the articles...

On 14 November 2000, the Flemish Parliament agreed on some new provisions in the decreten betreffende de radio-omroep en de televisie (Flemish Broadcasting ActArt. 38sexies - 38terdecies). The new provisions create the possibility for private organisations to obtain a licence and to be allowed frequencies for the commercial broadcasting of radio programmes targeting (nearly) the entire Flemish Community. Until now, radio frequencies were only available for local and metropolitan private radio stations, while regional or national private radio was only allowed by means of cable distribution. All...