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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...

The Swedish Broadcasting Commission has examined TV3, a Swedish satellite TV broadcaster established in United Kingdom. Due to its establishment in London, TV3 comes under the supervision of the Independent Television Commission (ITC). Earlier, The Swedish Broadcasting Commission considered the Swedish Satellite Act as not applicable to TV3 ( see IRIS 1995-10: 11). Despite this, the Commission has now reported to the Swedish Government about TV3's broadcasts from the UK aiming at the Swedish audience. In a special report to the Ministry of Culture the Broadcasting Commission examines whether the...

Hervé Bourges, Chairman of the French media supervisory authority, the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), presented the 1995 annual report of the CSA's activities on 12 September 1996. In addition to the balance sheets of the television channels, the report also includes a statement on the sanctions taken against radio and television companies. Since 1.2.1994, the CSA has authority to penalise not only on the broadcasters it licences, but also the public-sector channels France 2, France 3, La Cinquième and RFO. Usually the sanction process progresses from a first stage of warning, with...