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The British Broadcasting Corporation applied to the High Court in Scotland for consent to televise the proceedings of the trial of Abdel Basset Ali-Mohammed ElMegrahi and Al-amin Khalifa Fhimah on charges of, amongst other things, murder arising out of the destruction of PanAm103 over Lockerbie in 1988. Other broadcasters were joined to the application, submitting that any order permitting simultaneous broadcasts of the trial should be extended to them too. The Court declined to so order. The BBC relied, in part, on a 1992 Direction, permitting, on a limited basis, the televising of court proceedings....

The UK Government has decided to fund the extra costs of the development of the BBC's digital services through an increase in the general licence fee, thus rejecting the proposal made by an official committee for a special, temporary, digital supplement to the licence fee (IRIS 1999-8: 11). This follows extensive criticism of the proposal from a Parliamentary Committee (IRIS 2000-1: 11) and strong lobbying against it by commercial broadcasters. The Culture Secretary announced on 21 February 2000 that the cost of the current television licence will be increased by 1.5 per cent above the Retail...

The Independent Television Commission has recently published its revised Code On Sports and Other Listed Events. In general, the Code gives guidance on matters relating to televising sports events and other events of national interest as listed, from time to time, by the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport. The ITC does so to fulfil its statutory duty under the Broadcasting Act 1996 (Section 104), as amended by The Television Broadcasting Regulations 2000. The Regulations came in to force on 19 January 2000. Updating the Code was done to incorporate the requirements of Directive 89/552/EC,...

Following a wide-ranging review, the BBC has issued in February a new code for programme makers - the Producers' Guidelines - which sets out the BBC's editorial and ethical standards. The previous edition was issued just over three years ago in November 1996. This new edition has been substantially revised and strengthened from experience to reflect inter alia: current BBC programme-making standards; new audience expectations; the challenges of the digital age; the BBC's increasing role in international television; the growing importance of online broadcasting and changes in (European) law. The...

A joint announcement has recently been made by the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport and the Trade and Industry Secretary, signaling the publication later this year of another White Paper, proposing a new law to "take account of the convergence of the communications industries." On June 17 1999, an earlier White Paper, "Regulating Communications: The Way Ahead" was published. The aim of the new White Paper will be to take into account the proposals that have emerged from the European Union, namely "Towards a New Framework for Electronic Communications Infrastructure and Associated...