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On 9 November 2006, the Bundestag adopted a bill banning tobacco advertising. The law is meant to transpose Directive 2003/33/EC on the advertising and sponsorship of tobacco products in media other than television. Under the new Act, tobacco advertising will be prohibited not only on television and radio, but also in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet. Sponsorship by tobacco manufacturers will also be restricted. Despite the deadline of 31 July 2005, Germany has still not transposed the Directive into domestic law; in fact, it complained to the Court of Justice of the European Communities...

On 30 November 2006, the Bundestag adopted an amendment to the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code - StGB ). It states that, in future, the unauthorised, persistent pestering of another person shall be punishable if it causes serious and unreasonable harm to that person's way of life (Art. 241b StGB ). The new provisions threw up various questions in relation to the media, which are protected under Art. 5 of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law - GG ) not only in terms of reporting itself, but also in relation to the obtaining of information. According to the explanatory memorandum, the wording of the amendment...

On 30 November 2006, the German Bundestag adopted an amendment to the 2004 Telekommunikationsgesetz (Telecommunications Act - TKG) (see IRIS 2004-6: 9). One particularly controversial change concerns the sector-specific regulation of emerging "new markets" (see IRIS 2006-3: 12). For months, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media had been warning the German Government against granting so-called "regulation holidays" for companies with significant market power if they opened up new sectors with innovative new services. This was considered a breach of the Directives on electronic...

At their conference in Bad Pyrmont from 18 to 20 October 2006, the Minister-Presidents of the Länder agreed to continue the state betting monopoly. As the current Chair of the Conference of Minister-Presidents, Lower Saxony is responsible, along with the Länder of Bavaria, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, for organising a hearing on the draft Staatsvertrag zum Glücksspielwesen (Inter-State Gambling Agreement). One of the main amendments is the ban on advertising for public gambling services on television, via the Internet and by telephone. An exemption to the ban on TV advertising...

The European Commission has endorsed Germany’s new film fund on the basis of EC Treaty state aid rules. The Commission’s assessment of the scheme was based on the criteria set out in its 2001 Communication on state aid for cinema and audiovisual works (see IRIS 2001-9: 6). The scheme has been approved until 31 December 2009. In summer 2006, the Federal Government decided to introduce measures to support the German film industry (see IRIS 2006-8: 12) and asked a group of experts to draw up the key allocation criteria for a new system of production cost rebates. After these key criteria were put...