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On 4 March 1998, the Flemish Parliament voted on a new Decree guaranteeing a right of free newsgathering for the Flemish audio-visual media. This right includes a right of access to events taking place in the Flemish Community and the right to take images and sound of the event, as well as the right of short reporting by any Flemish broadcasting organisation, even if another broadcasting organisation holds exclusivity rights on this event. The right of access can be restricted only in extraordinary circumstances. Short reporting of events by broadcasters other than the holder of exclusive rights...

In 1997 the Belgian Communities, given responsibility in 1971 for regulating television, assumed responsibility for collecting broadcasting licence fees. The annual amount (BEF 7,488 for a television, BEF 1,092 for a car radio) is still fixed at national level, but the product is allocated to the Communities' budgets, in which it constitutes one of the very few tax revenues. The very Community-minded governments were therefore much more motivated to collect the fees efficiently than was the national service, set up within the former Régie des Téléphones (State-run telephone service) but marginalised...

On 3 December, the Flemish Parliament voted in the new decree aimed at reorganising the Flemish Media Council and which also allows for the setting up of a Flemish Media Commission. The Flemish Government's Bill (see IRIS 1997-10 : 12) was approved by Parliament with just a few amendments. Setting aside the regulatory power, which is not related to the audio-visual regulatory process and which remains the province of Parliament and the Government, everything else within the audio-visual sphere will come under the Media Council in its role as independent authority. The Council will be made up of...

The Centre du cinéma et de l’audiovisuel (Cinema and Audiovisual Centre) of Belgium’s French Community and Quebec’s Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (Society for the Development of Cultural Enterprises - SODEC) signed a protocol of understanding on 2 October 1997. This follows on from the co-operation agreement concluded between the government of Quebec and the Executive of Belgium’s French Community on 3 November 1982. According to this protocol, the parties will, by means of reciprocal exchanges of information, promote the visibility of their cinema and the production of...

On August 1997 the Flemish Parliament of Belgium presented a draft of a Decree providing for the creation of a new institution concerned with media policy in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The draft foresees in the establishment of a Flemish Public Broadcasting Commission (Commissariaat voor de Media) and in a new statute for the already existing Media Council (Vlaamse Mediaraad) which will entitle this organ with enlarged powers, as sole advisory organ for the Parliament and for the Government on media related issues. On the same time the Media Council will be subjected to a limitation in...