Search results : 393

On 2 November 2016, with decision n. 424/16/CONS, the Italian Regulatory Authority for Telecommunication (Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni - AGCOM) approved a decision concerning “guidelines about the respect of human dignity and the principle of non-discrimination within news programmes, news outlets and entertainment programmes”. With this decision, AGCOM wants to issue interpretative criteria for the activity of broadcasting services monitoring, for which it has responsibility, and to interpret the application of articles 3, 32 paragraph 5 and 34 of the Italian Audiovisual and Radio...

On 26 November 2016 the new statute on cinema and audiovisual sector, called the “Franceschini Law” after the name of the current Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities, has been published in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic. The Franceschini Law provides four key elements: first, the creation of a fund aimed at financing the cinema and audiovisual industry. Such a fund will be funded by a quote equal to the 11 percent of the VAT and IRES tax paid by the companies operating in the communications industry (in a broad sense). The amount of the fund will be no lower than EUR 400...

The Court of Rome handed down an interesting judgment in a case involving Reti Televisive Italiane S.p.A. (“RTI”) - the major Italian private broadcaster - and Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso S.p.A. (“L’Espresso”) - an Italian publisher, which publishes, among other things, the online version of the national newspaper “La Repubblica” (“Repubblica”). Starting from 2012, several excerpts of RTI TV programmes have been published in a specific section of the website of Repubblica without the authorisation of the broadcaster. RTI then filed a legal action against L’Espresso. The plaintiff sought a declaratory...

On 4 August 2016, the Ministry of Economic Development (Ministero dello sviluppo economico - “MISE”) issued a decree which sets forth the contribution to be paid by digital terrestrial television network operators for the exploitation of frequencies (the “Decree”). The Decree has been published in the Official Journal on 21 September 2016, numbered 221. According to s. 208 of the Stability Law 2016, MISE is in charge of determining the amount of the contribution, to be paid by both national and local network operators. According to the law, such amount shall be determined in a transparent, non-discriminatory...

On 19 July 2016, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministero dell’Economia e delle Finanze) issued a decree to identify the “specialised media” to which the general prohibition of gaming advertising on television and radio broadcasts between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. does not apply. The Decree has been published in the Official Journal on 8 August 2016. Restrictions on gaming advertising were introduced by Legislative Decree no. 158 of 13 September 2012 (“Decreto Balduzzi”). In addition, Section 1, paragraph 939 of Law no. 208 of 28 December 2015 sets forth the prohibition on “generalist radio and...