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The UK Government has published a draft Communications Bill to reform fundamentally the regulation of broadcasting and telecommunications and to liberalise ownership rules (see IRIS 2002-6: 9). As part of the consultation process, the Bill has been examined by two Parliamentary Committees drawn from both Houses of Parliament. The first report was that of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. The Committee considered that most of the Bill's provisions are unlikely to cause problems in respect of human rights; however some will require revision to provide adequate safeguards. Most seriously, the...

The Oberlandesgericht Celle (Celle High Court of Appeal - OLG) recently quashed the decision by the Amtsgericht Hannover (Hannover District Court - AG) to acquit "Big Brother" producer Endemol Entertainment Productions GmbH (Endemol) on the charge of surreptitious advertising. It referred the case for review. The Niedersächsische Landesmedienanstalt (Lower Saxony Regional Media Authority -NLM) had fined Endemol because its then managing director had deliberately broadcast surreptitious advertising. During the live broadcast in question by RTL Television GmbH (RTL), advertising rules had been...

According to Section 13.9 of the Bundesgesetz über den Österreichischen Rundfunk (Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - ORF-Gesetz, ORF-G), advertising for radio programmes broadcast by Österreichische Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting CorporationORF) may not be shown on television channels operated by ORF, and vice versa, unless it concerns the contents of individual programmes. According to the Act, which entered into force on 1 January 2002, the ban on cross promotion is designed to prevent the distortion of competition between the public service broadcaster ORF on the one hand...

A study on the development of new advertising techniques and their regulatory implications was recently submitted to the European Commission. Prepared by Carat Crystal and Bird and Bird, the study was commissioned as part of the ongoing review of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive. In the report, a panorama of existing advertising techniques and their regulation is followed by a similar analysis of emerging advertising techniques. In the case of the latter, particular emphasis is placed on interactive, split-screen and virtual advertising. Devising a new regulatory framework or modifying...

In March 2002 the zákon o vysielaní a retransmisii (Act on Broadcasting and Retransmission of 2000) was amended by zákon c. 206/2002 (Act No. 206/2002), which came into force on 8 May 2002. The amendments mainly concern the legal status of the Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission as now being entitled to impose fines for breaches of provisions concerning programmes and commercials without a warning only in defined cases: "The Council can impose a fine without prior warning, if the obligation pursuant to Art. 16 letter c) (Breach of the rules covering elections), Art. 19 (Protection of human...