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The official publication of 5 May 1999 contains the new declaration of the revision of the Belgian Constitution. One of the articles that can be modified by the new federal parliament after the elections of 13 June 1999 is article 25 of the Constitution, an article which has not been modified since 1831. The declaration for revision of the Constitution stipulates that the guarantees with regard to the freedom of the press ("The press shall be free; there shall never be any censorship; no security can be demanded of writers, publishers or printers ... ") also have to be made applicable to other...

On 4 May 1999, the Flemish Government agreed in principle on a list of events of major social significance with regard to the application of article 3bis of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive. The list contains an enumeration of international and/or national sport events (e.g., Olympics, football, cycling, tennis, athletics, motor racing, F1 car racing) and recognizes one cultural event as being protected in the sense of article 3bis of the Directive (the Queen Elisabeth Contest). The State Council, the Contact Committee in regard to application of article 23bis of the Directive and the...

The Brussels Court of Appeal heard an appeal against a decision reported in an earlier issue (IRIS 1999-1: 7). The original dispute was between SABAM, a company which manages copyright fees, and the Professional Union for Radio and Television Distribution (RTD), an umbrella organisation for Belgian cable distributors. In the original case, the presiding judge of the Court of First Instance in Brussels sitting in urgent matters had decided that the content of a letter sent by RTD to SABAM as part of negotiations on cable re-transmission rights constituted a violation of the exclusive right of authors...

The reorganisation in 1993 and 1994 of financial support for film productions in the Flemish Community did not live up to expectations. For this reason the Minister for Media drew up in 1998 a new plan for the allocation of subsidies for the audiovisual sector ( Beleidsplan Film in Vlaanderen, Parl. St., Vlaams Parlement, 1997-1998, nr. 1125 ). In accordance with this plan Parliament passed a new decree in order to replace the legal framework concerning the subsidising of the audiovisual sector in the Flemish Community ( Decree of 22 December 1993 and Decision of the Flemish Government of 23 February...

On 17 March 1999 the Flemish Parliament has voted for a modification of the Flemish Broadcasting decree in order to institute effective control over the programmes mentioned in Article 22 of the Television Without Frontiers Directive (protection of minors). Until now the Flemish Government was the competent body to ensure that no television programmes contained harmful content with regard to minors. It had become obvious, however, that in practice the Government was not able to fulfil this task. According to Article 22 of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, the Member States must take appropriate...