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In a decision of 18 April 2013, the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Senate - BKS) ruled that Österreichische Rundfunk (the Austrian public service broadcaster - ORF) had broadcast too much entertainment in its overall programme between January and August 2011. ORF had therefore infringed its public service remit. The Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (the Austrian communications authority - KommAustria) had, as the first-instance body, already upheld a complaint by several private television broadcasters that ORF had failed to fulfil its public service remit under Article 4(2) of...

In a judgment of 14 March 2013, the Verfassungsgerichtshof (Constitutional Court - VfGH) decided that Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), by virtue of the broadcasting freedom guaranteed under the Constitution, can give specific instructions to its journalists on how they should prepare their reports. The decision followed a circular email sent by the deputy editor of ORF’s Lower Austrian regional studio in July 2011, instructing its journalistic staff not to describe the man responsible for the attacks in Norway as a “Christian fundamentalist”. In a decision of 28 March 2012, the Bundeskommunikationssenat...

On 19 February 2013, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published its conclusions on the implementation of its recommendations made in the country reports of Albania, Austria, Estonia and the United Kingdom in its fourth monitoring round (for commentary on previous reports, see IRIS 2010-4/3, IRIS 2009-10/10, IRIS 2009-8/4, IRIS 2009-5/4, IRIS 2008-4/5, IRIS 2006-6/4, IRIS 2005-7/2). A new process of interim follow-up has been introduced as part of the fourth monitoring cycle. Based on information gathered by ECRI itself and provided by governments, ECRI draws conclusions...

In a decision of 13 December 2012, the Austrian Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Senate - BKS) ruled that the video section of a newspaper’s website meets all the criteria of an on-demand service in the sense of Article 2(4) in conjunction with (3) of the Audiovisuelle Mediendienste-Gesetz (Audiovisual Media Act - AMD-G). Under Article 9 AMD-G, it must therefore be notified to the regulatory authority. The “Tiroler Tageszeitung” operates a news portal, www.tt.com, which contains the online edition of its daily newspaper. Under the subdomain video.tt.com, the operator provides access...

Article 15 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) allows television channel operators to acquire exclusive broadcasting rights to events of high public interest. Other channels, however, must be able to have access to such events for the purpose of short news reports. The owner of an exclusive right must therefore provide other broadcasters with access to its signal to allow them to freely choose short extracts. The Directive permits that owners be compensated for access to their signal, but this compensation may not exceed the additional costs directly incurred in providing that access. In...