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In a judgement of 12 December 1996, the Court of Justice of the EC interpreted two provisions of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive. The intervention of the Court was requested by the Regional Administrative Tribunal in Rome ( Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale ) in the course of a proceeding between some national and local private broadcasters, on one side, and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, on the other side. The plaintiffs sought the anullment of the Decree No 581/93 adopted by the Government in 1993, concerning television advertising and sponsorship. According to the...

Article 177 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 was invoked recently by the National Heritage Secretary under which a foreign satellite service may be proscribed if, in the view of the Independent Television Commission, it is regarded as unacceptable and the Secretary of State believes that the order is in the public interest and compatible with the UK's international obligations. The order, which must be laid before Parliament, was against Rendez-vous; it proscribes the service in the UK, i.e. it makes the supply of smart-cards and programme material, advertising for or on the channel or any other service...

On 22 August 1996, the Hannover District Court imposed a fine of more than 20 million DM (which is unusually high for Germany) on the television station, RTL plus Deutschland . RTL, licensed in the Land of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) to broadcast a full ( i.e., not specilizing in a particular type of) television programme covering Niedersachsen and the rest of the country, had shown 34 television films, nearly all of them interrupted by four commercial breaks, between October 1993 and June 1994. The court found that the films had been shown under a general title ( Der grosse TV-Roman ), had separate...

On 19 March, the Council of the European Union adopted a common position on the Directive on misleading advertising (84/450/EEC), with a view to including comparative advertising. "Comparative advertising" is defined as "any advertising which explicitly or by implication identifies a competitor or goods or services offered by a competitor" (Art. 2 (2a)). Comparative advertising is to be permitted, inter alia, when it is not misleading according to Arts. 2 (2), 3 and 7, when it compares goods or services meeting the same needs or intended for the same purpose, when the comparison is objective and...

On 12 November 1996, on the basis of a Recommendation by the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, Parliament discussed the common position established by the Council of the European Union ( see IRIS 1996-9: 8  and IRIS 1996-6: 7) with a view to the adoption of a Directive amending the present `Television without Frontiers' Directive. The Culture Committee had proposed some radical amendments to the Council's common position. Notably it proposed that the obligation for EU Member States to ensure `where practicable', that broadcasters reserve for European works a majority proportion...