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At its meeting on 11 July 2003, the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) adopted its position on the Gesetzesentwurf für ein neues Filmförderungsgesetz (Draft Revised Film Support Act - FFG-E), which was tabled in April by the Federal Government Minister for Culture and Media (see IRIS 2003­5: 14). The Bundesrat welcomes, in principle, the attempt to adapt the current Act to the changing economic climate in the film sector and to give new impetus to film aid in Germany. However, it also criticises certain provisions. For example, with regard to the proposed establishment of a new German Film...

After it was announced early in the year that the provisions of the Medienerlass (Media Decree) of 23 February 2001 were to be examined and revised (see IRIS 2003-6: 11), the Bundesministerium der Finanzen (Ministry of Finance) issued a communication on 5 August 2003, finally stating its position on the taxation of the profits of film and TV support funds and in particular the question of whether investors in these funds should be treated as producers. According to Section 5.2 of the Einkommenssteuergesetz (Income Tax Act), investors, as long as they are treated as "film producers", can designate...

Under an agreement between pay-TV broadcaster Premiere and the Hamburgische Anstalt für neue Medien (Hamburg New Media Authority - HAM), the supervisory body, Premiere will introduce a new measure to protect minors from the pornographic films it shows after 1 August 2003. In view of the constant availability of films on demand (through the pay-per-view system), the regional media authorities had decided that additional precautions were necessary under the terms of Art. 9.2 of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on Protection of Minors in the Media - JMStV) (Art. 3.5 of the...

As well as defining the remit of the public service broadcasters, the 7. Rundfunkänderungsstaatsvertrag (Amendment to the 7th Inter-State Agreement on Broadcasting - RfÄStV), adopted at the end of June 2003, sets out some new regulations on improvements to regional reporting. In order to ensure diversity of opinion, Art. 25 (4) of the RfStV stipulates that general television programmes which are transmitted nationwide should include so-called window programmes in accordance with the provisions of State law. Under Art. 25 (2) RfStV, broadcasters which achieve a viewer rating of 25% to 30%, which...

During the Conference of Minister-Presidents held at the end of June 2003, agreement was reached over future amendments to the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on Broadcasting - RStV). The amendments mainly relate to the remit of the public service broadcasters and the strengthening of regional reporting by private broadcasters. The remit of public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF and public service radio broadcaster DeutschlandRadio will be amended in two stages. Firstly, the broadcasters' general objectives and certain programming rules will be incorporated in a so-called Grundnorm...