Search results : 78

The European Commission recently approved under EC Treaty state aid rules four aid schemes meant to support film making in Poland and Ireland, music recordings by new talent in France and newspaper distribution in Denmark. All four schemes were found to entail no undue distortion of competition within the Single Market. The Danish plans sought to give publishers of certain newspaper-like publications direct grants totalling EUR 1.3 million. The aid will enable publishers to freely choose their distributors in their efforts to distribute these publications. In deciding to favour this scheme, the...

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recently made public five new reports as part of the third cycle of its monitoring process of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2005-7: 3). Four of the country reports (Cyprus, Italy, Luxembourg and the Russian Federation) contain specific recommendations concerning the media. A recurrent, two-fold recommendation entails the ECRI encouraging the State authorities to: - “impress on the media, without encroaching on their editorial...

In August 2002, by a judgment of the Højesteret (Danish Supreme Court), the applicant company, Nordisk Film, was compelled to hand over limited specified unedited footage and notes of a broadcast television programme investigating paedophilia in Denmark. In order to make the programme, a journalist went undercover. He participated in meetings of “The Paedophile Association” and, with a hidden camera, interviewed two members of the association who made incriminating statements regarding the realities of paedophilia in both Denmark and India, including advice on how to induce a...

Over the past month, news bulletins have been dominated by coverage of the dramatic fallout from the controversial publication - initially by a Danish newspaper - of 12 cartoons, including caricatures of Prophet Mohammad. The circumstances surrounding the publication and successive re-publications of the cartoons, as well as the ensuing wave of protests, threats, violence and diplomatic manoeuvring, have been widely reported and will not be rehearsed again here. The focus will instead be on the international reaction to events, as exemplified by a selection of formal statements issued by a number...

A number of provisions concerning the (audiovisual) media can be found in the five country-specific Resolutions adopted to date by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers (CM) in the context of the Second Monitoring Cycle of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM). In respect of Croatia, the CM recommends that the State authorities inter alia “encourage media engagement in the promotion of inter-cultural dialogue”. In respect of Denmark, the CM identifies as an issue of concern a “seam of intolerance within Danish society […] inter alia, in the political...