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Since 2001 responsibility for ruling on the legality of decisions taken by the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Office), the supervisory body for the Austrian public service broadcaster, Österreichische Rundfunk (ORF), has rested with the Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Administrative Court). The Court has been called upon to decide important cases concerning the legality of the ORF 's remit on three occasions since then, including twice in April 2004. In all three cases it confirmed the decisions taken by the Federal Communications Office, which followed the same principles as those applied...

At its plenary meeting on 17 June 2004, the Stiftungsrat (Foundation Board) of the public service broadcaster Österreichische Rundfunk (ORF) took some important decisions. In a majority decision, the Stiftungsrat approved the creation of Österreichische Rundfunksender GmbH. Through this new company, ORF hopes to divide up its broadcasting network, separating its broadcasting infrastructure activities from those linked to content provision. The Board also approved the annual TV broadcasting plan for 2005. This continues on from the 2004 broadcasting plan, fixing TV programme quotas for minority...

On 16 June 2003 the Austrian public service broadcaster, Österreichische Rundfunk (ORF), and the Verband Österreichischer Zeitungen (Association of Austrian Newspapers) signed an agreement on advertising via the ORF's television channels under which the ORF pledged to comply with special rules defining the statutory restrictions applicable to the ORF in the sphere of television advertising (ORF advertising guidelines) and, in return, the Association of Austrian Newspapers agreed to go to arbitration before bringing any disputes before the court under the Unfair Competition Act and before lodging...

On 8 June 2004 the media department of the Austrian federal chancellery tabled a comprehensive bill amending the Media Act currently in force in Austria. The 1981 Media Act applies to all mass media, irrespective of the dissemination technology used. In principle, therefore, it already applied to all forms of electronic media, even though there were no provisions relating specifically to individual media. This meant it was unclear, however, whether all the provisions of the Act actually applied to information available on the Internet, and since the specific features of the Internet were not taken...

Over the last few months various state agencies have published plans or introduced measures with a view to improving the way in which broadband Internet access is provided in Austria. `Broadband' can be defined as constant Internet access with a physical downloading bandwidth of at least 384 kbit per second, the billing being unrelated to the amount of time the customer spends using it. At the present time, only 19 % of the population have this type of Internet connection. There is a consensus that Internet access should be improved, especially in rural areas. An investigation carried out by the...