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A number of amendments have been made to the Swiss Radio and Television Decree (ORTV) with a view to relaxing the rules on advertising and sponsorship, although the modifications, in force since 1 April 2010, concern private-sector broadcasters only. The Federal Council has deferred its decision on a possible relaxation of the provisions governing the public-sector broadcasting company SSR after examining the amount of the licence fee for receiving radio and television broadcasts (see IRIS 2010-5/12). In June 2010, the Federal Council decided not to increase the fee for the years 2011 to 2014,...

The Vlaamse Raad voor de Journalistiek (Flemish Council for Journalism Ethics) has created a new code on journalism ethics that was made public on 6 October 2010. This Council is an independent self-regulating institution that supervises journalistic work in all Flemish media upon the filing of a complaint by a member of the public, thereby guaranteeing that journalistic ethics are upheld. It can also issue ethical directives and recommendations on its own initiative. The new ethical code is all-integrating, as it contains 27 provisions inspired by two classic texts that are very often referred...

On 10 September 2010, the Flemish Government issued a decision on the use of a logo for the indication of product placement, which was made public on 6 October 2010. The decision obliges broadcasters to display the logo in a clear and contrastive way for at least five seconds at the beginning and at the end of programmes containing product placement and after every break. The decision further stipulates some requirements as to place (top or bottom, at the right side of the screen), size, colour, and transparency of the logo. The logo should be displayed in a neutral way, which means that the products...

In a decision published on 18 October 2010, the Austrian broadcasting authority, the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Senate - BKS), declared its position on the difference between an advertising spot and a public information broadcast. The procedure followed a complaint about the broadcast of a 20-second spot by the Austrian workers’ association on Österreichische Rundfunk (Austrian public broadcaster - ORF), which labelled it as a “public information broadcast”. In the spot, the workers’ association dealt with some topical political themes and criticised possible tax reforms...

The Slovenian Ministry of Culture has prepared the new Zakon o medijih (Media Law) and released it for public discussion on 28 July 2010. The discussion, which ended on 20 September 2010, was quite challenging and caused a mass movement of Slovenian musicians and journalists. Slovenian journalists raised their voices in spring this year because they were not satisfied with the current regulation of Slovenian media because, in their view, it does not protect the freedom and autonomy of journalists to a satisfactory extent. They noticed that the interests of profit and the market would no longer...