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On 11 January 2007, the new Federal Government was sworn in by the Austrian President. The Federal Chancellor, Dr Alfred Gusenbauer, will be responsible for the media. The Government programme contains a chapter on "Media and Telecommunication". Alongside ensuring a pluralistic media landscape with high-quality services, promoting Austria's competitiveness as a media and cultural centre and strengthening the dual broadcasting system, the following plans are outlined: 1. The media authority KommAustria and the Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH (broadcasting and telecommunications regulator)...

In December 2006, the European Parliament discussed the Commission proposal, unveiled a year earlier, to revise the Television Without Frontiers Directive (see IRIS 2006-1: 5). The revision is being carried out with a view to converting the Directive into a future-proof version which has accordingly been dubbed the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. The European Parliament adopted the report produced by the German parliament member Ruth Hieronymi. This first reading resulted in approximately 130 amendments to the original Commission proposal. Parliament has accepted the basic underlying principles...

The Slovenian Media Act which is the essential legislative tool for the content regulation of television programming, was amended in May 2006. The proposal for an amendment of Article 84 on the protection of children and minors against potentially harmful materials was formulated by the Peace Institute of Ljubljana at the request of the Ministry of Culture. Also, an additional non-governmental proposal was made by NGOs involved in the field of social care for children and women and involved in the framework of the project on pornography regulation. The non-governmental group proposed a formulation...

On 16 November 2006, the Portuguese Council of Ministers approved a Draft Television Bill. The Bill was open for public consultation until 15 December 2006 and aims at replacing both Act nº32/2003 of 22 August 2003 and Decree-Law nº237/98 of 5 August 1998. With this Draft the Government intends to detail the legal criteria for the granting and renewal of TV licenses, to adapt the legislation to technological changes (namely the introduction of Digital Terrestrial TV), to abolish the existing differences between the public service obligations imposed on state-owned channels (thus re-incorporating...

In December 2003, the Secretary of State asked the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) to consider proposals to strengthen the rules on food and drink advertising to children. After extensive research and consultation, Ofcom has now reached a controversial decision to ban all advertisements for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar in and around all programmes of particular appeal to children under the age of 16, broadcast at any time of day or night on any channel. This will include a total ban on such advertising in and around all children’s programmes and on dedicated children’s channels...