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At its meeting on 23 May 2003, the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) gave its opinion on the planned revision of the "Television Without Frontiers" Directive (Council Directive 97/36/EC amending Directive 89/552/EEC). The Bundesrat welcomed the efforts already made by the European Commission to initiate a debate on the potential need for the regulatory framework to be adapted and, as part of the further development of the Directive, to take into account all specific instruments of European audio-visual policy and their interaction with other policy areas. This strategy should help to pursue...

On 17 April the long-awaited new decree on broadcasting came into force in the French-speaking Community of Belgium, replacing the old decree on the audio-visual sector dating back to 17 July 1987 and the decree of 24 July 1997 on the audio-visual regulatory body (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel ­ CSA) and private radio broadcasting services in the French-speaking Community (see IRIS 1997-8: 14). The new decree encompasses all the legislation on the audio-visual sector in the French-speaking Community with the exception of the public-sector service (RTBF), which remains governed by the decree...

On 19 May 2003, the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communication Senate - BKS) responded to complaints from several commercial radio broadcasters against the public service broadcaster ORF relating to advertising in the programme Starmania. The decision addressed some fundamental questions concerning the ORF's right to advertise. The BKS noted that, under Article 14.5 of the ORF-Gesetz (ORF Act), ORF is prohibited from using so-called "product placement" unless it is necessary within the context of the programme. Consequently, a large proportion of the product placement in the Starmania programme...

More than 100 delegates from the 35 Members of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA) held their 17 Meeting in Naples on 8 and 9 May 2003. The meeting marked a change in leadership. The new Executive Board of EPRA was elected. The Board now comprises five instead of three members and is chaired by Michael O'Keeffe, Chief Executive of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. The first part of the plenary session was dedicated to practical aspects of a convergent regulatory authority. This was discussed with relation to the examples of AGCOM, Italy and OFCOM, United Kingdom. Both...

On 25 June 2003 the Verfassungsgerichtshof (Constitutional Court -VfGH) published a decision in the proceedings involving the new Act concerning the Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian public service broadcasting organisation - ORF). Inter alia, the claimant, the Vienna Land Government, considered the provision of the ORF Act to be unconstitutional, according to which “…at all events, for the prime-time evening programmes (8 p.m. to 10 p.m.), as a rule, a selection of intellectually demanding broadcasts should be on offer,“ (§ 4 (3) Section 2, the ORF Act). This apparently constituted direct interference...