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For the third time this year the Court of Cassation has found provisions of the French regulations on communications law incompatible with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The present case referred to Articles 1, 11 and 12 of the Act of 19 July 1977 that prohibit publishing, circulating and commenting on opinion polls during the week preceding an election. Between the two ballots in the parliamentary elections in 1977, the newspaper Le Parisien published an analysis and commentary of an opinion poll under the heading "First round of parliamentary elections - what the...

In recent years judges have had to deal with a number of cases concerning journalists' copyright when their articles are re-used on-line, and the Court of Cassation has just delivered an important decision on the subject. In the case in question, an appeal had been lodged with the Court by a freelance journalist whose former employer had, without his consent, re-used - in several issues of the same magazine - photographs he had taken that had been published previously in the magazine. The substance of the case did not therefore concern their reuse on-line, but the principle behind the Court of...

Last summer the Conseil d'État cancelled the exploitation licence issued to the film Baise-moi allowing the film to be shown to anyone over the age of 16 years. The case gave rise to considerable controversy regarding gaps in the classification of cinema films in France. According to the 1990 decree, there are four common-law classifications for cinema films - authorisation for showing the film to the general public, authorisation for showing the film to anyone over the age of 12 years, authorisation for showing the film to anyone over the age of 16 years, or a total ban on showing the film. In...

On 24 July, the CSA (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel - the audiovisual regulatory authority) signed a new agreement with the company Métropole Télévision (M6). Appended to the decision to prolong the channel's authorisation to broadcast, this will govern the channel's obligations for the next five years. A considerable proportion of the content of the agreement results from the high-profile debate aroused by the broadcasting of Loft Story on M6. A number of points have been added to the agreement with the channel, whose ethical obligations have been reinforced, particularly as regards the rights...

The launch of terrestrially-broadcast digital services in France was one of the main features of the Act of 1 August 2000 reforming audiovisual communication. This Act amended the Act of 30 September 1986. On 24 July this year, further to wide-ranging consultation with the parties concerned, the CSA (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel - the audiovisual regulatory authority) put out a call for applications for operating terrestriallybroadcast digital television. After due consideration, the CSA has decided that it ought to be possible to broadcast thirty-three television services on six multiplexes....