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The year 2009 has been a fruitful year for legislation in the broadcasting scene in Malta. Earlier on in the year, Parliament enacted a law to empower the Maltese Broadcasting Authority to license radio and television satellite services. Currently, the House of Representatives is discussing a Bill to amend the Broadcasting Act to transpose the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS), whilst another Bill has been drawn up - though it has not yet been published - intended, inter alia, to regulate general interest objectives in Maltese Broadcasting Law. The Audiovisual Media Services Directive...

A Memorandum of Understanding on mutual co-operation and exchange of information between the Czech Council for Radio and TV Broadcasting, the Hungarian National Radio and TV Commission, the Polish National Broadcasting Council, the Romanian National Audiovisual Council, the Serbian Republic Broadcasting Agency and the Slovak Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission was signed on 10 December 2009 in Prague. Each signatory shall prepare a brief summary of the relevant legislation in the respective country for the regulation of the content of and advertising in TV and radio broadcasts. The purpose...

On 18 December 2009 the National Assembly adopted at its first reading the Law on amendment and supplementation of the Radio and Television Act (Draft Law). The main aim of which is to implement the provisions of Directive 2007/65/EC. The following is a summary of the main changes introduced by the Draft Law. 1. The Draft Law replaces the current regulations on radio and TV activities by a new framework for the provision of audiovisual media and radio services, and also extends the regulation to audiovisual media services on demand. The latter are subject to the notification regime. The providers...

On 19 December 2009, the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2009 came into force. This was actually the date by which EU Member States must transpose into national law the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS Directive). The Regulations are made under the European Communities Act, 1972, Section 2(2). The Regulations deal with those matters in the Directive whose transposition requires legislation, with the exception of “product placement”. There are four main topics in the Regulations: 1) The regulation of video-on-demand services. This involves a new legal definition of “on-demand programme...

In a decision of 10 November 2009 (case no. VI ZR 217/08), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH ) suspended a pending procedure in order to ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling under Art. 234 of the EC Treaty. The question that needs clarification concerns the international responsibility of courts to rule on injunction suits against Internet publications by companies that are based in another EU Member State. The ECJ has also been asked to determine whether the claim under the country of origin principle enshrined in Directive 2000/31/EC should be assessed...