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Since 1991 the Flemish Broadcasting legislation, with some modifications, stipulates a ban on advertising immediately before and after children's programmes. In a time period of 5 minutes before and after programmes targetting children under 12, no advertising or sponsorship messages are allowed. For many years the commercial broadcasting organisation VTM and its second channel Kanaal 2 have been opposed to this provision of the Broadcasting Decree and have sought the abrogation of the 5-minute rule. A decree proposed in the Flemish Parliament some months ago, however, went in the opposite direction...

On 6 August, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on the Communication from the European Commission "Principles and guidelines for the Community's audiovisual policy in the digital age" (see IRIS 2000-1: 5). The Resolution endorses in general terms the Commission's guidelines. As to the revision of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive, the European Parliament considers that it should be implemented in the course of 2002. The revised Directive should take a more incisive and effective approach as regards independent production and the circulation of European works. The Commission...

The Swiss Federal Council wants to put an end to the consumption of hard porn being exempt from criminal sanctions. Its bill, adopted on 10 May 2000, proposed the addition of a paragraph 3.a) to Article 197 of the Criminal Code. This makes not only anyone manufacturing or commercialising hard porn liable to prosecution - it also includes anyone in possession of such items, regardless of how they have been obtained (purchase, rental, loan, exchange or gift). So that the prosecuting authorities are not inundated, mere consumption will not warrant prosecution - the passive viewer of works of child...

In an Order of 30 June 2000, the Conseil d'Etat (Council of State) upheld the application by an association which disputed the award of an approval certificate on 22 June by the Minister of Culture and Communication to the controversial film Baise-moi ("Screw me"). The certificate only banned children under 16 from watching the film and stipulated that a warning about the nature of the film should be posted at the cinema entrance and included in all publicity for the film. In accordance with Article 19 of the film industry code, films may only be shown in French cinemas if they have been awarded...

On 22 May 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Section 505 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("1996 Act") was not the least restrictive means available to block access to sexually-oriented cable television programming and, as such, violated the First Amendment of the Constitution. The Supreme Court's decision affirms an earlier decision from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Section 505 required cable television operators providing channels primarily dedicated to sexually-oriented programming either to fully scramble or block those channels or...