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In February 2010, the French competition authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) did not validate the pooling fund proposed by the national cinematographic centre (Centre National de la Cinématographie - CNC) for financing the digital equipping of cinema theatres (see IRIS 2010-3: 1/23), but proposed the setting up of a new tax to achieve this. The CNC then appealed to the legislator (see IRIS 2010-4: 1/25), announcing that a draft text would soon be submitted to the concertation procedure; this would include the principle of a contribution from distributors as the prime source of financing for...

The Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory body - CSA) has carried out a new study with a view to improving the circulation of audiovisual works originally in the French language. This is an issue it looked at in 2006, but competition has increased since then with the arrival of the DTV channels. The legal framework has also changed, as the “Tasca” Decrees were revised in 2008 and 2009 in order to raise the production obligations incumbent on most of the players in the market, especially new arrivals. After an initial summing up in April 2010, a number of proposals for measures...

By imposing a total ban on advertising on public-sector channels, the Act of 5 March 2009 constituted nothing short of a revolution on the French audiovisual scene. Originally, the ban was supposed to be implemented in two stages - applying to the period between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. starting on 5 January 2009, then a total ban starting on 30 November 2011, the date of the total switch from analog to digital television. As compensation, a new tax was introduced on advertising broadcast by the private-sector channels, and another new tax on electronic communication operators. Nevertheless, sponsored...

Slowly but surely, with the publication of the implementing decrees for the “HADOPI I” and “HADOPI II” Acts (see IRIS 2010-1:1/23 and IRIS 2009-7:12/20), the High Authority (“HADOPI”) is getting into working order, despite the efforts of its detractors. The “HADOPI II” Act of 28 October 2009 gave the criminal courts the task of ordering the suspension of Internet access for an Internet user who fails to comply with the obligation to ensure that access was not used for the illegal circulation of protected works. This is in addition to the offence of “specific negligence”, which attracts a penalty...

On 29 July 2010, Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, presented the regular report to the OSCE Permanent Council, the organisation’s main decision-making body. The report consists of overviews of issues raised in the participating countries, activities of the Representative in the last period and planned activities for the next reporting period. A large part of the report consists of the analysis of issues raised in 26 of the OSCE participating states. In the last period the Representative had to deal with several issues concerning media freedom, such as media pluralism,...