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Last Thursday, 18 March 2010, the Spanish Parliament approved the New General Law of Audiovisual Communications. This new Law has been demanded by the audiovisual sector and consumers associations and has been discussed on various occasions in the last six years in the Spanish Parliament before finally being approved. The Law sets out several rules on content and mode of operation for the players in the sector (these rules are already currently applied by broadcasters to a certain extent as, although they were not included in a general law before, they could already be found in several rules and...

On 15 February 2010, the Oberlandesgericht Hamburg (Hamburg Court of Appeal - OLG) decided that looking at Internet sites containing child pornography is a criminal offence under Art. 184b(4) of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code - StGB). It overturned the first instance ruling and referred the case back to be heard again (case no. 2-27/09 (REV)). In the case concerned, the lower instance court had noted that the defendant had accessed files containing child pornography on the Internet in order to look at them. However, since the defendant had not known that the files would be automatically stored...

Product placement has been authorised in the French-speaking Community of Belgium since 19 December 2009, in compliance with Article 21 of the Coordinated Decree of 26 March 2009 on audiovisual media services. By totally banning product placement in news broadcasts and children’s programmes, the legislator has in fact gone further than is required by the AVMS Directive, but the amendment is significant nonetheless: in all other types of programme, the placement of accessories is authorised, whereas product placement stricto sensu (i.e., in return for payment) is only accepted in cinematographic...

At the end of 2009, the Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery) published for debate an extensive draft amendment to Austrian broadcasting laws. The consultation procedure has since been completed, so the Federal Government can now consider the opinions that have been submitted as it draws up a Government bill. The organisation and remit of the Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian communications authority - KommAustria) are the subject of significant changes. In future, KommAustria will not be subject to directives and will take the form of a collegiate authority. Its role will be extended to...

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...