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The national film institutes of the 15 Member States of the European Union have made a common declaration on the importance of State aid for European films. This is the first time the film institutes have made a common statement. The national film institutes are publicly funded and were founded to support national and European film culture. In this common declaration the institutes express their concerns regarding the necessity for State aid for European films. The institutes are worried that the audio-visual sector in Europe will be left solely to the chances of free market forces. In the declaration,...

On 29 November 2002, the Spanish Council of Ministers decided to approve the proposed merger between Sogecable and Via Digital, the companies that manage the two leading Spanish digital pay-TV platforms. The case had been referred to the Spanish authorities by the European Commission at their request in August 2002 (see IRIS 2002-9: 8). The company resulting from the merger will be controlled by the two main partners of Sogecable, Canal Plus (a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal) and PRISA (the main Spanish multimedia group), and by the main stakeholder of Via Digital, the Spanish telecommunications...

In December 2002, the Spanish authorities approved several provisions that partially amend some existing norms relating to the country's media law. On 30 December 2002, the Spanish Parliament approved the Ley de Medidas fiscales, administrativas y del orden social (Act 53/2002 on Taxation, Administrative Provisions and Social Affairs). An Act on taxation, administrative provisions and social affairs ("Special Measures Act") is approved each year, together with the Budget Act. The main object of the Special Measures Act is to introduce amendments to existing provisions, thus acting as a "container"...

A Catalan association for the protection of the Spanish language recently appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court, asking that it be declared unconstitutional that the Catalan public television broadcasts almost all of its programmes in Catalan. The appellant argued that Spanish is the official language in all of the national territory and that those persons living in Catalonia who do not speak Catalan were being discriminated against by the Catalan Administration. The Supreme Court dismissed this appeal, stressing that most of the television channels that are received in Catalonia are broadcast...

In July 2002, the Spanish Parliament approved Act 34/2002 on Information Society Services and E-Commerce. By means of this new Act, which will come into force in October 2002, the Spanish authorities have incorporated EC Directive 2000/31 ("Directive on electronic commerce") into Spanish law. This new Act applies to "information society services" ("IS services"), which the Annex to the Act defines as those provided for remuneration (even if they are free for the recipient), at a distance, electronically and at the individual request of the user. Services provided by voice telephony, fax, telex,...