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The RTBF has been a shareholder in Canal+ Belgique ever since its launch in 1989. Indeed it was a requirement that all pay television companies were to allow the RTBF (either directly or through one of its subsidiaries) a capital holding of at least 26% or a blocking minority holding. At the end of 1999 it was announced that the Defi Group, one of the other Belgian shareholders in Canal+ Belgique, had sold its holding in the channel. The RTBF was then tempted to sell its holding at a comparable price in order to make extremely useful capital gains. In May 2000, Canal+ Benelux BV acquired the...

In a ruling of 19 May 2000, the Brussels Court of First Instance dealt with a case involving a hidden camera. On 2 October 1998 the applicant, Mrs P., had attended the recording of a talk-show on Flemish TV channel VTM, entitled "I'm looking for a millionaire", which concerned people attracted by money. Once the recording was officially over, the studio audience, including Mrs P., and the programme guests, including one man who was supposed to be a millionaire, had been invited by VTM for a drink. It was then that, by means of a hidden camera. Mrs P. had been filmed in conversation with the supposed...

On 17 February 1999 the Vlaams Commissariaat voor de Media (the Flemish Media Authority) decided that although VT4 operates under an ITC-licence in application of the British Broadcasting Act, VT4 in reality is established in the Flemish Community. VT4 was given until 15 September 1999 to request a licence as a Flemish broadcasting organisation and to conform to the media legislation of the Flemish Community (see IRIS 1999-3: 11 and IRIS 1999-6: 13). The decision of the Media Authority resulted from a complaint by VTM, the Flemish commercial TV-broadcaster, against VT4. At the request of VT4 the...

Since its installation in 1997, the Authorisation and Supervision Board of the regulatory body for the audiovisual sector (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA)) of the French-speaking Community had been very sparing in its use of the power to sanction which it holds by virtue of the Decree of 24 July 1997; only two - minorsanctions had been imposed in two and a half years, one against a radio station which had changed its broadcasting frequency without authorisation, and the other against RTL-TVI for broadcasting violent images during a news broadcast. In the space of just over one month, on...

On 2 February 2000 the Court of Arbitration delivered a judgment in a case on broadcasting law in Belgium. The Arbitration Court is a federal high Court with a competence similar to a constitutional court. The case concerns the current broadcasting legislation in the Flemish Community according to which radio frequencies for private broadcasters are only available for local and metropolitan radio stations, while all radio frequencies for regional or national broadcasting are exclusively available for the public broadcasting organisation VRT and its radio networks. Regional or national private radio...