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The Swiss Federal Council wants to put an end to the consumption of hard porn being exempt from criminal sanctions. Its bill, adopted on 10 May 2000, proposed the addition of a paragraph 3.a) to Article 197 of the Criminal Code. This makes not only anyone manufacturing or commercialising hard porn liable to prosecution - it also includes anyone in possession of such items, regardless of how they have been obtained (purchase, rental, loan, exchange or gift). So that the prosecuting authorities are not inundated, mere consumption will not warrant prosecution - the passive viewer of works of child...

The results of the consultation procedure on the bill proposing new federal legislation on culture and the film industry were published on 24 May 2000. The bill is aimed at relaxing the regulations and providing the Swiss filmmaking industry with a modern means of providing encouragement, giving preference to inducement rather than to intervention. In general, the bill received a favourable reception among those consulted, particularly professionals in the filmmaking and audiovisual industries. Termination of the present authorisation scheme imposed on distributors was approved. On the other hand,...

The Bundesrat (Swiss Federal Council), meeting in cabinet on 19 January 2000, has laid down the principles governing revision of the Radio- und Fernsehgesetzes (Radio and Television Act - RTVG). The new broadcasting arrangements will operate on the basis of a dual system. On the one hand, media enterprises are to be subject to market forces, with government influence reduced to a minimum and advertising and sponsoring rules relaxed in line with European standards. The objective therefore is one of the deregulation of the private sector. On the other hand, there is a strong public service sector...

A radio broadcaster who distributes, via the Internet, a programme which may not legally be sponsored, but whose Internet broadcast is funded by a third party and mentions the sponsorship arrangement, is in breach of the ban on sponsorship (Article 19.4 of the Radio and Television Act - RTVG). This is the conclusion of the Federal Office of Communication (BAKOM) in a decision addressed to the Swiss Radio and Television Corporation (SRG). Since Spring 1999, a selection of reports from Swiss radio station SR DRS' political analysis programme Echo der Zeit has been made available from around 8 pm...

The company Billag AG will be allowed to continue collecting radio and TV licence fees for another seven years. The Swiss Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication (UVEK) awarded the contract after an invitation to tender. Until the end of 1997, radio and TV licence fees had been collected by the former telecommunications company PTT Swisscom. In order to ensure continuity during and after the partial privatisation of Swisscom, the Council of Ministers had introduced an interim arrangement by obliging the company to continue collecting the fees either in its own name...