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On 4 November the Conseil d’Etat rejected the application made by a cinematographic distribution company for the cancellation of the classification certificate issued one year earlier by the Minister for Culture for the film Quand l’Embryon Part Braconner that required that the film was not to be shown to anyone under the age of 18 years. The applicant felt that the decision, based on the violent and pornographic nature of the film, was disproportionate and flawed by a manifest error of appreciation. Backed by the national federation of film distributors, the applicant claimed that “the use of...

On 29 September 2008 the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory authority - CSA) published its report on the place occupied by the cinema in the best television viewing figures. In its report, the CSA compared the audience figures for full-length feature films broadcast on television from 1994 to 2007 and reached the alarming conclusion that the presence of the cinema on French television channels is in decline. It noted that the number of cinematographic works in the category of the 100 best viewing figures had been divided by three in the space of 14 years, falling within...

The “Tasca Decrees” are regulations aimed at developing and maintaining a fabric of ‘independent producers’ for television channels in order to preserve the diversity of French production. They ensure for producers a set of inalienable rights in order to ensure not only their survival but also their development. They are based on restrictions not only on the rights that the channels may acquire but also on the new work they may commission, and make it possible to preserve a degree of independence in the financing and content of French production. Disparaged by some yet considered as being almost...

The French Government has presented a bill entitled “Creation and the Internet” as a solution to the threat to creation posed by unlawful downloading. Proposing the setting up of a system of “graduated response” which is intended to be dissuasive rather than repressive, the bill has given rise to considerable debate both in France and in Europe. Amendment 138 adopted by the European Parliament catalysed the fears expressed by the bill’s detractors (see IRIS 2008-10: 4). “Graduated response” refers to the method for warning and sanction that the new High Authority for the Broadcasting of Works and...

On 20 October 2008 the Government presented the 154 measures that make up its “2012 Digital France” plan, which aims at reducing the gap between France and its international competitors in this specific area. Noting that the digital economy is a vector for growth that has a lot of potential, the plan is based on three major democratic objectives, namely ensuring that everyone in France has access to broadband Internet, ensuring that France switches over to all-digital in the audiovisual sector before 30 November 2011 in keeping with the Giazzi Report submitted in September, and reducing the digital...