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In a ruling of 11 December 2008 (case no. VG 27 A 132.08), the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court - VG) upheld a complaint lodged by the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg media authority - mabb) against the private broadcaster ProSieben for a breach of the ban on surreptitious advertising enshrined in Art. 7 para. 6 sentence 1 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement - RStV). The complaint concerned episodes of the programme "TV total Wok-WM" broadcast in 2006 and 2007, particularly various visual and verbal references to brand names...

On 26 November 2008, the Swiss Federal Council referred to the Parliament the additional message on Switzerland’s participation in the European Union’s MEDIA Programme. The Swiss Confederation and the EU had signed an agreement on 11 October 2007 enabling Switzerland to continue to participate in the MEDIA Programme. In exchange for this agreement, however, the EU had demanded that Switzerland fully incorporate into its national legislation the country of origin principle arising from the Community’s “Audiovisual Media Services” Directive (AVMSD). This requirement would mean that it would no longer...

On 5 December 2008, the Flemish Government approved a draft of a new Media Decree, which aims to implement the Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2007/65/EC. The draft has been introduced in the Flemish Parliament, which is strongly expected to grant its approval to the final text of the new Decree before the regional elections in June 2009. The draft contains a set of modifications and modernizes the broadcasting law in the Flemish Community. Some of its most striking characteristics are highlighted below. The draft differentiates between “broadcasting activities” and “broadcasting services”....

Marknadsetiska Rådet (The Council on Market Ethics - MER) is a self-regulatory board composed of several Swedish associations and companies. MER, whose statements are not legally binding, rules on good business practice. Recently it delivered a statement regarding a TV commercial that has caused debate within the advertising business. The issue concerns a TV commercial for the OLW Sverige AB company. In the commercial, a one-legged person asks a three-legged person if the latter wants to share. Bringing forward a packet of crisps the three-legged person then responds, “Av det här goda?” (approx....

The National Broadcasting Council of Latvia (NBCL) has finalised the process of drafting a new Audio and Audiovisual Media Services Law (Draft Law), which is planned to replace the Radio and Television Law currently in force (see IRIS 2008-6: 13). The Draft Law applies to providers of audio and audiovisual media services under the jurisdiction of Latvia who provide their services in public electronic communication networks, notwithstanding the mode of transmission. The Draft Law uses substantially different terminology from the existing Radio and Television Law. The terminology corresponds to...