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In a decision of 14 December 2011, the Austrian Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS) commented on the character of sponsor logo walls and sew-on badges worn by experts in sports broadcasts and ruled that unlawful product placement had taken place in a specific case. The case concerned the broadcast of a football match by Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian public service broadcaster - ORF). During the pre-match coverage from the stadium concerned, the presenter interviewed a football expert. One camera shot showed the expert in front of a transparent wall displaying four...

In its first judgment of 2012 related to (journalistic) freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights dealt with an interesting application of the right of the media to report on criminal cases in an early stage of investigation. The judgment also focuses in a peculiar way on the notion of a “public figure”. The case concerns an article published by the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, reporting on the enormous speculation losses incurred by a regional bank, Hypo Alpe-Adria. The article reported on the criminal investigation into embezzlement that had been opened by the...

Of the 578 cinema screens in Austria, 388 are digitised, most of them in commercial cinemas. The Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur (Federal Ministry of Education, Art and Culture - BMUKK) and the City of Vienna are now supporting the digitisation of repertory and regional cinemas. The rapid conversion of commercial cinema screens from analogue to digital projection technology is putting increasing pressure on repertory and regional cinemas, especially since film distributors are switching more and more to digital film copies, including in the repertory cinema sector. It costs approximately...

On 12 October 2011, the Austrian Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS) partially overturned a decision of the Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian Communications Authority - KommAustria) against Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian public service broadcaster - ORF) and ended a dispute between the regulatory body and the public service broadcaster concerning the labelling of sponsored programmes. In its decision of 14 June 2011, KommAustria had found ORF guilty of breaching the provisions on labelling of sponsored programmes contained in Article 17 of the ORF-Gesetz (ORF...

On 12 October 2011, the Ausschuss für Forschung, Innovation und Technologie (Committee for Research, Innovation and Technology - FIT) of the Austrian Nationalrat (National Assembly) approved a Government bill amending the Telekommunikationsgesetz (Telecommunications Act - TKG 2003) without adding any amendments. The bill had been adopted by the Austrian Ministerrat (Council of Ministers) and submitted to the Nationalrat on 30 August 2011. It was due to be debated at a plenary session on 19 October 2011. The proposed bill is designed to transpose into national law the amendments to the EU legislative...