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The Austrian Government has submitted a draft Federal Act on the Establishment of a National Media Authority, the Austrian Communications Commission (KommAustria). According to Section 1.1 of the Bill, the new authority's basic role would be to assume all regulatory responsibility for the broadcasting and telecommunications fields throughout Austria. At present, these tasks are distributed between the Federal Chancellery and various ministries. The new media authority would, for example, be expected to push for effective competition, reasonably-priced consumer access to communications services,...

On 30 January 2001, the European Commission presented a Communication to the Council and the European Parliament on its policy orientations concerning improving the security of information infrastructures and combating computer-related crime. The importance of network security and the fight against cybercrime are highlighted in the eEurope Action Plan launched by the Commission in June 2000 (see IRIS 2000-6: 5). The Commission feels that information and communication infrastructures have become a critical part of national economies and therefore need to be protected against their own vulnerabilities...

The legislation in Ireland, which regulates the content and supply of videos, is the Video Recordings Act 1989. That Act designated the Film Censor's office as the regulatory body to deal with videos as well as films. The Film Censor has power to classify videos according to age and to refuse certificates for the supply of videos if their content is such that they may inter alia corrupt viewers or incite to crime. The Act, however, does not extend to video games. Initially, this omission did not pose a problem. More recently, developments in the content and range of video games have given rise...

The Radio Authority, established by the Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996 to license and regulate Independent Radio, adopted and published its original Advertising and Sponsorship Code ten years ago. The 1990 Act obliges the Authority to review the Code from time to time. In March 2000, the Authority initiated a consultation process with the aim of revising and modernizing the Code. The new Code was published on 4 January 2001. Broadly, the aims of the revision are to (a) bring the Code into line with current and pending legislation (b) restructure the Code, to highlight the more important rules...

On 19 December 2000, after much strong criticism of the government coalition's proposals in the early drafting stages, the Hessian Landtag (state parliament) adopted amendments to the regional broadcasting laws, which had been improved in several respects. In the end, the Gesetz über den Hessischen Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcasting Act - HR-Gesetz) did not mention the so-called "compulsory mandate" for members of the Broadcasting Council. The original draft stated that all members of the Council could be immediately withdrawn by the organisations they represented, whereas the previous version of...