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After three years of preparation and any amount of being passed back and forth in Parliament, the Act reforming the audiovisual sector, aimed in particular at strengthening the public sector and opening the way for the development of terrestrially-broadcast digital television in France, was adopted on 29 June. Apart from a few minor points, most of the text was declared to be in compliance with the Constitution by the Constitutional Council on 27 July. Firstly, the Act restructures public-sector audiovisual communication, making considerable amendments to the Act of 30 September 1986. The central...

Act no. 2000-516 of 15 June 2000 strengthening the protection of the presumption of innocence and victims' rights was promulgated in the Official Gazette on 16 June. Described as one of the most ambitious reforms of criminal procedure since the Code of Criminal Procedure was introduced in 1958, the Act includes a chapter of provisions concerning communication (Chapter VIII). Designed above all to protect the image and dignity of victims, the Act adds an Article 35d to the Act of 29 July 1881 on freedom of the press, making it a criminal offence to disseminate, without the victim's permission,...

In an Order of 3 July 2000, the Conseil d'Etat (Council of State), the supreme administrative court in France, annulled Communiqué 414 of the CSA (French Independent Broadcasting Authority) of 22 February 2000, which authorised the television advertising of the Internet sites of companies in sectors banned from advertising (press, distribution, cinema, literary works) under the terms of Article 8 of the Decree of 27 March 1992 (see IRIS 2000-3: 12). The Council of State thus upheld the request of professional organisations in the film and radio sectors, which thought that the CSA's decision was...

In an Order of 30 June 2000, the Conseil d'Etat (Council of State) upheld the application by an association which disputed the award of an approval certificate on 22 June by the Minister of Culture and Communication to the controversial film Baise-moi ("Screw me"). The certificate only banned children under 16 from watching the film and stipulated that a warning about the nature of the film should be posted at the cinema entrance and included in all publicity for the film. In accordance with Article 19 of the film industry code, films may only be shown in French cinemas if they have been awarded...

The Court of Appeal in Paris has recently upheld the judgment (see IRIS 1999-5: 3) prohibiting the company which produces the newspaper Le Figaro from making on-line use of articles written by journalists when such use is not provided for in their employment contracts and therefore constitutes infringement of copyright. Initially, the Court stated that by virtue of Article L 131-6 of the CPI (intellectual property code), the transfer clause - which is intended to confer the right to make use of the work in a form not foreseeable or not provided for at the time of the contract being agreedmust...