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On 26 April 2008 new amendments to the Law on Alcohol Control came into force. The amended Law abolishes the unconditional prohibition to advertise alcoholic beverages in TV programmes. According to the former amendments of the Law on Alcohol Control (see IRIS 2007-8:15), which came into force on 1 January 2008, alcohol advertising was prohibited from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. in broadcast programmes of broadcasters under Lithuania’s jurisdiction. When the prohibition to broadcast alcohol advertising came into force, the broadcasters of Lithuania suspended the live broadcast of all sports and began to...

The Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (French audiovisual regulatory body - CSA) announced on 10 June the opening of a public consultation on the right to information in the field of sport, continuing on from the consideration of the subject since last February. There are currently two methods for public audiovisual access to sports events. The first is the broadcasting of the event, usually live and generally in its entirety, which involves the channel acquiring rights that are often exclusive. The second takes the form of summarised reports that are normally offered free of charge by the radio...

The media authorities of the Länder (States) have recently noted several cases of surreptitious advertising on television and have initiated proceedings against the broadcasters concerned. Surreptitious advertising is defined in section 2(2)(6) of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement) and is prohibited under the first sentence of section 7(6). After conducting a thorough investigation, in particular concerning the contractual relationships between the television station, the producer and the programme organiser, the Media Council of the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg...

On 6 May 2008, the Commission sent Spain a reasoned opinion for failing to comply with European advertising rules. The move constitutes the second and final stage in the infringement procedure initiated in July 2007, before the case is referred to the European Court of Justice. According to Article 18(1) of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (former article 18(2) of the old Television without Frontiers Directive), “the proportion of television advertising spots and teleshopping spots within a given clock hour shall not exceed 20%”, i.e. 12 minutes per hour. The Commission takes the term “advertising...

The Swedish Supreme Court has come to a spectacular decision on the infringement of moral rights. The Court found that commercial breaks during films on television constitute an infringement of the directors' moral rights and that the possibility of waiving these rights is limited. In the case at hand, two well known Swedish directors complained about the broadcasting of their respective films on TV4, where the films were interrupted with commercial breaks. TV4 is Sweden's largest commercial free TV channel. At first, the directors complained to the Swedish Broadcast Commission. The Commission,...