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On 1 January 2014, the Decree of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic No. 468/2013 laid down the specific requirements for loudness of programme services. On 22 October 2013, the Slovak Parliament passed an Amendment (No. 373/2013 Coll. to Act. No 308/2000 Coll. on Broadcasting and Retransmission (see IRIS 2014-1/41). Among other things, the Amendment abolished the preceding system of measuring loudness of advertisement compared to the editorial content of the broadcasting. It authorised the Ministry of Culture to issue bylaws that will set the details for a new system compatible with...

After controversial debates over the new Закон за аудио и аудио-визуелни медиуми (Law on Audio and Audiovisual Services) in January 2014 (see IRIS 2013-7/19, IRIS 2013-8/28), the Macedonian Parliament adopted amendments to the audiovisual regulation, which excludes monitoring and regulation of web sites. This is expected to improve the situation of freedom of the media in the country. One of the main critical issues concerned the question, which professional journalists' association would nominate a member of the Board of the regulatory authority, after a second professional association had been...

In a ruling of 12 December 2013 (case no. I ZR 192/12), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that linking a competition to the sale of sweets in a television advertisement was admissible, provided the diligence requirement set out in Article 3(2)(3) of the Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (Unfair Competition Act - UWG) did not apply, since the advertisement was aimed not only at minors. The case concerned a TV commercial for a competition in which customers had to purchase the advertised sweets in order to take part. The advertisement showed the presenter Thomas Gottschalk...

Since 2010, Belgian French-language newspaper publishers have been in dispute with the Belgian public service broadcaster RTBF, which they accuse of developing its online activities, more specifically by publishing written content on its website in addition to the audiovisual content that forms part of its public broadcasting remit. The newspaper publishers claim that this written content creates unfair competition, especially as it benefits from public funding in the form of the annual subsidy granted to the RTBF by the French Community of Belgium. The publishers have brought three legal actions...

On 27 January 2014 the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) approved the Broadcasting Code for audiovisual media operators. According to the regulator, the Code is meant “as a step to further complete the legal and sublegal framework for the monitoring and controlling of radio and television stations’ activity.” The Broadcasting Code further specifies the guiding principles regarding content of audiovisual media laid out in the Act on Audiovisual Media No. 97/2013 approved in March 2013 (see IRIS 2013-8/9). More specifically, the Code tackles in detail the guiding content-related principles for audiovisual...