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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has, once again, clarified that media freedom and entertainment news must respect the right of privacy of individuals, including when commenting on the private life of media celebrities. The case of Rubio Dosamantes v. Spain deals with an application by the Mexican pop singer whose artist name is Paulina Rubio, complaining that her reputation and private life had been harmed by remarks in various Spanish TV programmes. The ECtHR held that the dismissal of Dosamantes’ claims by the Spanish courts was a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention...

The video-sharing platform YouTube removed five videos that the Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC) and the Department of the Presidency of the Catalan Government denounced for inciting violence against women. The CAC reported on five videos, including Cómo pegar a una mujer (“How to beat a woman”), and 10 blogs, including Dominación Machista (“Male Domination”), El Rincon del macho (“Macho corner”) and La Cueva del misógino (“Misogynist’s cave”). The 15 videos and blogs were reported to the State Attorney in Barcelona, who has opened investigation proceedings concerning their content. In parallel...

By judgment of 10 November 2016, the Spanish Supreme Court cancelled Royal Decree 1657/2012, which regulates the procedure of compensating rightsholders for acts of private copying. This Decree was itself a continuation of the derogation by Royal Decree Law 20/2011 of the private copying levy and the introduction of a new system whereby fair compensation for acts of private copying is paid to rightsholders from the state budget (see IRIS 2012-8/19, IRIS 2011-5/20, IRIS 2011-4/23 and IRIS 2010-10/7). The Supreme Court decision follows the judgment delivered on 9 June 2016 by the Court of Justice...

On 10 November 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in DTS v. European Commission, on whether the financing of the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE is compatible with EU rules on state aid. At issue were amendments introduced under Law No 8/2009 on the funding of RTVE (Ley 8/2009 de financiación de la Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española), which provided that advertising, teleshopping, sponsorship and pay-per-view services would no longer be sources of funding for RTVE. Instead, the only commercial revenue that would be available would be income which...

On 27 July 2016, Spain’s National Authority for Markets and Competition (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia - CNMC) published the first report on the fulfilment of the Spanish Public Corporation (Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española - CRTVE) public interest duties and funding, corresponding to 2014. The 2006 National Public Radio and Television Act imposes the duty on an independent authority to assess the effectiveness of the public service broadcaster in delivering the public service purposes set out in the Law. Nevertheless, the absence of such authority before the creation...