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On 27 March 2017, the Court of Appeal in Paris delivered an interesting judgment involving the right to control over the use made of a person’s image and the right to privacy of a woman involved in a criminal case that was the subject of a ‘docu-fiction’. The television programme at issue was based on a case in which, in 2009, a woman was found guilty of complicity in the murder of her husband and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The programme was constructed using interviews of the people involved in the court case and journalists, and was illustrated with photographs and videos. The woman in...

The Decree of 21 March 2016 amending the terms of reference of the national public-sector audiovisual companies lays down the common rules applicable to the new ethical committees established at each of the national programming companies (France Télévisions, Radio France, and the company responsible for the audiovisual sector outside France). The ‘Media Independence’ Act of 14 November 2016 added to the Act of 30 September 1986 an Article 30-8, which provides for the founding of a committee on honesty, independence and diversity in news and programmes, whose members are independent, including each...

The Decree amending the scheme requiring editors of television services broadcast terrestrially to contribute to the production of audiovisual works has now been published. It amends Decree No. 2010-747 of 2 July 2010, in order to account for a number of agreements reached recently between service editors and the organisations representing the audiovisual producers. For the main part, the new Decree introduces the possibility for the national audiovisual regulatory body (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) to reduce the independent part of the contribution required of an editor of television...

On 8 March 2017, the Conseil d’Etat (Council of State) deliberated on an application for the suspension of two film licences issued by the Minister for Culture for the animated film ‘Sausage Party’, which prohibited the film from being shown to anyone under 12 years old. The appeal was lodged by a number of associations against the judgments delivered under the urgent procedure rejecting their application. One of the licences had been issued for the original version of the film, the other for the French version. The applicant associations claimed, in support of their appeal, that the licencing...

In a decision delivered on 30 March 2017, the Constitutional Council pronounced on the constitutionality of the tax on advertising broadcast by television channels, instituted by Article 302 bis KG of the General Tax Code, in its version subsequent to the Act of 15 November 2013. The tax, payable by all television service editors established in France, is calculated according to the ex-VAT amount of the sums paid by advertisers to the editors of television services “or to the advertising networks” for broadcasting their advertising spots. In the case at issue, a prior question on constitutionality...