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A number of important amendments were recently introduced into the Statute of Georgia “On Broadcasting” of 23 December 2004 (see IRIS 2005-7/24). The first set of changes was adopted by parliament on 8 April 2011 and promulgated on 2 May 2011 (Statute No. 4525). Article 37 of the broadcasting law is amended to prohibit a broadcasting license from being held by a legal entity registered in an off-shore zone, and/or a legal entity, whose share/stock is directly or indirectly owned by a person registered in an off-shore zone. The Statute also adds Article 37-1 that obliges applicants for a license...

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has decided that a continuous visual reference to Skype during an interview may constitute product placement. Sky News broadcast an interview via a video call in its coverage of the Utoya Island massacre in Norway. Whenever the interviewee was shown full-screen, the words ‘VIA SKYPE’ were shown almost continuously in a caption in the top right-hand corner. There was no product placement agreement with Skype, and Ofcom was concerned that this amounted to giving undue prominence in a programme to a product, service or trade mark, which is prohibited by the...

The intensity of the sound of commercials has been a recurrent source of complaints from viewers to the audiovisual regulatory body (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) for more than ten years (an average of three complaints each week), and the legislator and the regulatory authority have now taken the matter in hand. Article 177 of Act No. 2010-788 of 12 July 2010, Article 14 of Decree No. 92-280 of 27 March 1992 (as amended), and Article 27 of the Act of 30 September 1986 (as amended) require channels to observe an even volume of sound for both television programmes and commercial breaks,...

On 14 September 2011, the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht der Landesmedienanstalten (Media Licensing and Monitoring Commission - ZAK) filed a complaint that the “Show zum Tag des Glücks”, broadcast on 25 April 2011 by TV broadcaster “Das Vierte”, infringed the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag (Interstate Gambling Agreement - GlüStV), and prohibited a repeat broadcast. During the programme, the participants of which had to have bought a ticket for the Süddeutsche Klassenlotterie (South German lottery - SKL), the lottery’s logo was repeatedly shown. The ZAK also considered that extensive references...

On 23 May 2011 the Civil Court, First Hall, sitting in its constitutional capacity, held that the Broadcasting Authority - by withholding two political spots from being broadcast during the divorce referendum campaign - was not in breach of freedom of expression under the Constitution of Malta and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. No appeal was lodged against this judgment to the Constitutional Court. In Advocate Dr. Deborah Schembri and others in their personal name and on behalf of the Yes for Divorce Movement/Yes for Marriage, the said Yes Movement filed a freedom...