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The main regulatory framework for broadcasting is the Law on Radio and Television Broadcasting N. 7(I)/1998 (see IRIS 2001-1/13) as amended up to 2009. The Law amended and consolidated the Laws N. 120/1990 and N. 29(I)/1992 on radio and television respectively. Its main objectives are to allow the establishment and operation of private commercial broadcasters; to ensure the editorial and creative independence of professionals in the broadcast media and to set requirements for safeguarding media pluralism. The most significant provision of the Law is the establishment of the Radio Television Authority,...

The Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) has reinstated the delaying effect of two legal challenges in an accelerated procedure (case nos. 6 VR 3.08 and 6 VR 4.08). The challenges were lodged by two public limited companies under Danish law, which operate the Kurdish-language television station Roj TV under a Danish licence. The channel can be received all over Europe via satellite. The Bundesministerium des Inneren (Federal Ministry of Home Affairs - BMI) had assumed that the television channel was a propagandist mouthpiece of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which...

At the beginning of May, a draft Act on the further development of the legal framework for new services was presented, proposing amendments to the Telemediengesetz (Telemedia Act - TMG) and the Vorläufiges Tabakgesetz (Provisional Tobacco Act). The Act is meant to transpose Directive 2007/65/EC (Audiovisual Media Services Directive - AVMSD) with regard to its provisions concerning on-demand audiovisual media services. The main areas in which the AVMSD requires amendments to the TMG are the definitions of service providers and on-demand audiovisual media services (Art. 2(1)(1) and (6) of the draft),...

The UK culture secretary has now announced, after a consultation exercise, how the Government intends to proceed on key broadcasting policies set out in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. The most controversial policy is in relation to product placement, currently banned in any UK-made programmes. Broadcasters argued that allowing product placement would provide a new source of revenue, but consumer and viewer groups claimed that it would blur the distinction between advertising and editorial content and undermine the trust that viewers have in the integrity of UK-made programming. The...

In its decision of 15 January 2009, the Conseil d’Etat (Belgian administrative court) repealed the decision of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory body of the French-speaking Community - CSA ) of 29 November 2006, which ruled that “since 1 January 2006, the S.A. TVi has been broadcasting RTL-TVi and Club-RTL services, of which it is the editor, without authorisation” and which imposed a fine of EUR 500,000 on TVi. The case featured the CSA on one side and CLT-UFA, a Luxembourgish broadcasting company, and its Belgian subsidiary TVi, a broadcasting company under Belgian...