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On 25 January 2018, the Commission on the operating environment of independent media presented to the Icelandic Minister of Culture and Education, Ms. Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, its report entitled “The operation environment of the media - Commission proposals on an improved operation environment of independent media.” The Commission proposed various changes to the current media policy instrument: firstly, a time-limited 25% refund of costs directly related to the production of news and current affairs in the media. The refund will apply to all licensed and registered media; television, radio, newspapers,...

On 12 January 2018, amendments to the Information Society Code (see IRIS 2015-3/11) were enacted which enter into force on 1 June 2018. Firstly, the Code will be renamed the Act on Electronic Communications Services (ECSA). Secondly, among the core amendments, the provisions on the issuance of programme licences will include new conditions for granting and withdrawing such licences. Alongside previous conditions, the Finnish Communication Regulatory Authority (FICORA) must grant the licence should there not be a manifest reason to suspect that the applicant will violate Section 6 on age limits,...

On 10 January 2018, the Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC) Board members passed unanimously Agreement 1/2018 in response to the request made by the Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations on the draft Royal Decree (906/2017) on commercial communications regarding activities involving gambling and “responsible gambling”. The CAC is in favour of banning gambling and betting advertisements before the “watershed” - that is to say from 6:00am to 10:00pm. The Council also considers that it should be appropriate to eliminate the involvement of famous people in these kinds of commercial communications...

On 30 January 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgment in the case of Sekmadienis Ltd. v. Lithuania, concerning freedom of expression and the regulation of commercial advertising deemed offensive. Notably, the Court unanimously found that an advertising company’s freedom of expression had been violated by the imposition of a fine under Lithuania’s advertising law. The applicant in the case - a Vilnius-based applicant company ran an advertising campaign in October 2012 introducing a clothing line by the designer R.K., including advertisements on R.K.’s website. The...

On 17 November 2017, a self-regulatory code on transparency in YouTube advertising was announced by the Dutch Media Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media). A large group of YouTube users who create professional online video content have developed, with the help of the Dutch Media Authority, the Social Code: YouTube, in order to be more transparent about advertising in online videos. The Social Code: YouTube was a response to the results of research by the Dutch Media Authority on the frequency with which products and brands are visually shown in videos on YouTube. During the development of this...