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In its bid to modernise the rules governing Europe's media industry, the Commission deployed plans a few years ago to revise the Television without Frontiers Directive. In order to do so effectively, the Commission initiated consultations in 2003 (see IRIS 2004-1: 6 and IRIS 2003-2: 5) which drew remarks and analyses from experts and stakeholders on future EU rules for audiovisual content. The findings that emerged from these consultations are that the European audiovisual sector is drastically changing as a result of technological innovations which make media convergence more of a reality. This...

On 6 May 2005, the Turkish broadcasting regulator (RTÜK) announced that it planned to remove four channels showing erotic content from the list of channels transmitted by the satellite company Digitürk. The channels concerned - Adult Channel, Exotica TV, Playboy TV and Rouge TV - are all broadcast from abroad and have about 12,000 subscribers in Turkey. They will no longer be available in Turkey because the regulator claims they infringe "the moral values of the nation". Digitürk has already said it will appeal against the ban. The RTÜK also issued warnings to eight private broadcasters for showing...

Saeima, the Parliament of Latvia, is planning to make a short, but important amendment to the Radio and Television law, stipulating that the prohibition of harmful content is in force in the period between 07.00 - 24.00, instead of the current period of 07.00 - 22.00. The existing regulation is as follows: Article 18 section 4 of Radio and Television Act envisages that ”[B]roadcasting organisations may not distribute programmes and broadcasts with such content as may be harmful to the normal physical, mental and moral development of children and adolescents, except in cases when a specific broadcasting...

The Communications Act 2003 established a new unified regulator for communications, Ofcom (see IRIS 2003-8: 10). The Act requires Ofcom to draw up a code for television and radio which covers standards in programmes, sponsorship, fairness and privacy, replacing the six codes of its predecessor bodies (sec. 319). The Code also gives continuing effect to the content requirements of the Television Without Frontiers Directive (see Appendix 2 of the Code). The new Code has now been published and comes into force on 25 July 2005. The matters it covers are: Protecting the Under-Eighteens, Harm and Offence,...

In March 2005, the 7^th European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy was held in Kyiv (Ukraine). Its central theme was: “Integration and diversity: the new frontiers of European media and communications policy”. It led to the adoption of a Political Declaration, three Resolutions on the Conference's main themes, an Action Plan and a Resolution on the media in Ukraine. The Political Declaration welcomed the activities carried out by the Council of Europe in the media field since the previous Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy in Cracow in June 2000. It sketched the priority...