Search results : 31

At its meeting in June 2005, the Rada pre vysielanie a retransmisiu (Council for broadcasting and retransmission) decided to impose two fines on “ Slovensko hľadá Superstar ”, a TV programme broadcast by the public broadcaster Slovenská televízia, for having breached an advertising ban. The Council justified its decision with reference to § 35 para. 6 of the Law on Broadcasting and Retransmission, according to which public broadcasters are prohibited from broadcasting any advertisements during a programme. Advertising and teleshopping spots during programmes are permitted only in the case of programmes...

On 24 June 2005, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) adopted four new reports as part of its ongoing 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). The country reports, which examine the situation in Estonia, Lithuania, Romania and Spain, were adopted in the context of ECRI’s third monitoring cycle. Each report contains specific recommendations concerning the media. In three of the reports, ECRI expresses its concern that instances of incitement...

On 8 December 2004 the Estonian Parliament adopted a new Electronic Communications Act. It implements the EC's Electronic Communications regulatory package (see IRIS 2002-3: 4), Changes in Estonian Telecommunications Law (see IRIS 2000-5: 14) were required due to the country's accession to the EU on 1 May last year. In line with the EC regulatory package, the new Law covers all types of transmission networks used for electronic communications, including cable TV and broadcasting networks. The Law will not extend to content regulation. Regarding authorization of broadcasting services, individual...

On 1 January 2004 a revised version of the Language Act of 21 February 1995 entered into force. The Language Act governs the use of the Estonian language. It establishes, amongst other things, that Estonian is the official language in Estonia as well as a requirement concerning the use of the language. Estonian employees are to be provided with job-related information in Estonian; moreover officials and employees in public service are required to master Estonian while rules for language testing and the evaluation of language skills are being drafted. In the broadcasting field, audio-visual productions...

The Constitution of the Republic of Estonia was adopted in a referendum on 28 June 1992 and last amended on 14 September 2003 in preparation for the country's accession to the European Union. Article 45 of the Estonian Constitution guarantees the right to free speech and expression of opinions. Everyone shall have the right to freely circulate ideas, opinions, persuasion and other information by word, print, picture or other means. This right may only be restricted by law if this is necessary for the protection of an overriding legal good, such as public order or morals, and the rights and liberties,...