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On 18 September 2018, Ofcom launched its discussion paper entitled “Addressing Harmful Online Content” (the report) which considers ways to regulate social media, especially in the context of children and young people, whilst respecting freedom of expression. The report follows the DCMS’s (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) July 2018 interim report entitled “Disinformation and Fake News” (see IRIS 2018-8:1/27). Furthermore, this coming winter, the UK Government will publish a White Paper setting out its intention to legislate in order to improve online safety. Ofcom’s report flagged...

On 13 June 2018, following inter-institutional negotiations, the European Parliament, European Council, and European Commission published a Provisional Agreement on a proposal amending the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2010/13/EU) (AVMSD), which was first put forward by the Commission in May 2016 (see IRIS 2016-6/3). The proposed version of the new Directive, running to 38 pages, makes substantial amendments to over 17 of the articles of the AVMSD and includes some new articles. A number of notable amendments should be mentioned. Firstly, the amended Article 13(1) now provides that member...

With decision no. 2833 published on 29 April 2017, the Court of Appeal of Rome confirmed in its entirety last year’s ruling issued by the First Instance Court of Rome in the RTI vs. Break Media case (see IRIS 2016-6/18). Break Media is an Internet portal that publicly offers free videos, created by Break Media itself or uploaded by users, on a platform that bases its business model on advertising. The platform, in fact, has an editorial team which manually categorises the videos on the basis of several criteria. Along with the videos, users are shown targeted advertising decided on the basis of...

The White Paper on broadcasting in Catalonia issued by the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (Catalan Audiovisual Council, CAC), and presented in the Parliament of Catalonia, proposes a strategic plan to foster the sustainable development of the Catalan broadcasting system in the coming years. It achieves this by addressing the challenges of ensuring the economic sustainability of public media; consolidating the commercial content providers and making them competitive, particularly in the local sector; strengthening the cultural industries; increasing Catalan language in broadcasting overall;...

On 6 February 2017, the video-sharing platform YouTube removed four copies of a video in which a user appears in Barcelona offering a beggar biscuits filled with toothpaste. Although the user already removed the video, the Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya (Catalonian Audiovisual Council, CAC) noted the same video had been again uploaded through four other YouTube accounts. On 27 January 2017, the CAC contacted YouTube asking them to remove these four copies of the original video, on the basis that the content showed in the video violated the fundamental rights of a person, in particular the...