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On 22 March, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a Decreto-Legge (statutory instrument), containing budgetary and non-budgetary measures aimed at supporting and stimulating the Italian film industry and, more generally, the whole field of entertainment. On the basis of the new legislation, the Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali (Ministry of Culture) will be able to set aside part of its own budget for 2004 for the development not only of the film industry, but also of theatre and opera productions, concerts and sport events. Cinecittà Holding S.p.a. ­ a (predominantly) state-owned...

The Legislative Decree setting forth new provisions in the field of cinematographic activities in Italy entered into force on 20 February 2004. It establishes, under the Ministry for cultural assets and activities, a Commission for cinematography divided into two sub-commissions. The first sub-commission will be in charge of the acknowledgment of the cultural interest, at the planning stage, of a movie. It will also decide on the maximum share of financial support to be allocated to such a movie, to be determined also on the basis of the proved artistic value of its authors. The other sub-commission...

On 24 December 2003, the Italian Government approved decree-law no. 352, introducing urgent provisions concerning the transition period accorded to analogue terrestrial TV channels exceeding the media concentration rules (RaiTre and Rete4), established by the 1997 Communications Act (see IRIS 1997-8: 10 and IRIS Special "Television and Media Concentration" 2001, page 47). The decree-law intervenes as a step in the legislative process leading to the approval of a new Media Act. This process was interrupted on 15 December 2003, when the President of the Republic rejected parts of the Government's...

On 24 December 2003, the Italian Parliament adopted the national budget for 2004 (Disposizioni per la formazione del bilancio annuale e pluriennale dello Stato (legge finanziaria 2004), Act of 24 December 2003, no. 350) and set up a fund for the promotion of purchases or rentals of decoders for cable and terrestrial digital television (C-DVB and T-DVB) sold or rented from 1 January 2004 and contracts for broadband access to the Internet signed after 1 December 2003. In the first case, the public contribution is of EUR 150 per consumer out of a total fund of EUR 110 million, and in the second case,...

On 19 November 2003, the Minister for Communications, the Minister for Innovation and Technology and the main associations of Internet service providers signed a new self-regulatory Code of Conduct aimed at protecting children from potentially damaging use of, and from unsuitable content on, the Internet. On the basis of the self-prescribed set of rules, Internet providers will not only implement and promote measures in order to provide differentiated navigation services (which restrict or exclude access to certain content), but they will also provide content classification and will abstain from...