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The House of Representatives has adopted a number of amendments to the basic law on Radio and Television Organisations 7(I)/1998 in order to fully harmonise its provisions with the AVMS European Directive. According to the explanatory report attached to the draft of the amended law, the amended sections of the law relate to a variety of issues, with some deemed necessary on the basis of observations made within the framework of "EU Pilot" (an ongoing informal dialogue between the Commission and the EU member states about issues related to potential non-compliance with EU law). The main amendments...

On 4 July 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a judgment on whether Lithuania’s media authority could impose an obligation on all broadcasters requiring that a UK-based channel could be broadcast in Lithuania only in pay-to-view packages, as it had found that one of its programmes “contained information that incited hatred”. The CJEU held that such a measure did not infringe Article 3(1) of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which provides that member states “shall not restrict retransmissions” of broadcasts from another member state. The case concerned...

The wording of the Federal Statutes “On amendments to the Federal Statutes ‘On Communications’ and ‘On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information’” states its aim to be that of enabling the Russian sector of the Internet to operate independently of the World Wide Web in the event of an emergency or foreign threat. On 16 April 2019, the Russian State Duma approved the bill in its third reading, and on 22 April, the Federation Council (the upper house of the Russian Parliament) approved it. It was signed by President Vladimir Putin on 1 May 2019 and enters into force...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a decision in a case of Holocaust denial expressed in an interview broadcast on Swedish television, published on YouTube and reported in German media. The ECtHR found that the statements in the interview at issue were not protected by the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The applicant is Mr Richard Williamson, a British national and former member of the Society of Saint Pius X, opposing the ecclesiastical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. He was excommunicated under the Code...

At a hearing on 29 January 2019, the Sixth Appeals Administrative Court annulled the decision taken on 29 May 2018 by the Kyiv District Administrative Court on the merits of the case relating to the legality of Russian rebroadcasts via cable systems in Ukraine (see IRIS 2018-8/39). The case started in 2014 (see IRIS 2015-5/38 and IRIS 2017-1/33). The current appeal was brought by the Ukrainian cable TV distributor “Vertikal-TV”. The case originated with the national media regulator’s claim for the illegal nature of the content of unspecified Russian TV programmes to be acknowledged and for further...