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On 10 and 17 April 2013, first the French National Assembly’s European Affairs Committee and then its Cultural Affairs Committee adopted a draft resolution defending the cultural exception as part of the negotiations on the free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States. On 12 March 2013, the European Commission had adopted a draft mandate authorising the opening of negotiations on a comprehensive agreement on trade and investment between the European Union and the United States, entitled “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership”, which would include cultural and audiovisual...

The reaction of the audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) was not slow in coming, following the announcement of the death of a participant during filming of the new season of the successful adventure reality TV broadcast Koh-Lanta (an adaptation of Survivor). Since the launch of the first reality TV programme (Loft Story, in 2001), the CSA has considered a number of the issues raised by these programmes (see IRIS 2001-5/9). Its concern has taken the form of a Deliberation in 2005 on young viewers, and the establishment in 2011 of a list of recommendations on...

On 19 February 2013, the Court of Cassation delivered an important judgment on a matter of neighbouring rights in a dispute over the soundtrack for the film Podium, starring a look-alike of the singer Claude François. In the case, Spedidam, the society for the collection management of the neighbouring rights of performers of music and dance, claimed that the producer of the highly popular film had created the soundtrack of the film without obtaining authority from the performers concerned, using recordings made before neighbouring rights were protect by the Act of 3 July 1985. Collection agreements...

In a Chamber judgment of 14 March 2013 the European Court of Human Rights made clear that the French president should not be overprotected against insulting statements, especially when these statements, with a satirical undertone, have been uttered as part of a public or political debate. The case concerns the criminal conviction of Hervé Eon, a socialist and anti-GM activist living in Laval, for insulting the President of France, Mr. Sarkozy. In 2008, during a visit to Laval by the President of France, Eon waved a small placard reading “Casse toi pov’con” (“Get...

In July 2012, the Autorité de la Concurrence (competition authority) authorised the grouping of the pay television activities of TPS and the Canal Plus group, i.e., the two satellite bundles CanalSat and TPS, subject to the implementation of corrective measures imposed in the form of thirty-three injunctions (see IRIS 2012-8/25). By means of these injunctions, the competition authority wanted to ensure clear rules for the independent channels having access to distribution on CanalSat. The authority called on Canal Plus to ensure that these channels would have the benefit of technical, commercial...