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Austria is playing an increasingly prominent role in the protection of children in the European Union. Following the amendment of the "Television Without Frontiers" Directive, which led to the introduction on 1 January 1999 of visual identification of programmes considered unsuitable for young persons (see IRIS 1999-1:9), a symposium on the theme "Violence in the Media" was held on 10 March 1999. The symposium, attended by experts from Austria and abroad, was organized by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ( ORF), the Federal Ministry of Environment, and Youth and Family. It was divided into...

The Independent Television Commission (ITC), the UK regulator of private broadcasting, has fined a cable company £10,000 for breaches of its Rules on the Amount and Scheduling of Advertising in relation to local advertising. The amount of the fine is relatively small compared to some other recent fines levied by the Commission (£2,000,000 in one other recent case) but it does show the importance of financial penalties even in the case of relatively minor breaches. The company, Telewest, had been given a formal warning by the ITC in March 1998 after three incidents when complaints were upheld about...

On 17 March 1999 the Flemish Parliament has voted for a modification of the Flemish Broadcasting decree in order to institute effective control over the programmes mentioned in Article 22 of the Television Without Frontiers Directive (protection of minors). Until now the Flemish Government was the competent body to ensure that no television programmes contained harmful content with regard to minors. It had become obvious, however, that in practice the Government was not able to fulfil this task. According to Article 22 of the Television Without Frontiers Directive, the Member States must take appropriate...

The results of a 6-month study on the techniques and technologies available to facilitate parental choice with regard to television programmes conducted by the University of Oxford on behalf of the Directorate-General X of the European Commission have been published. The scope of the study was to determine feasible means of ensuring compliance with Article 22 of the Television Without Frontiers Directive. From the analysis of the feasibility of the application of technical instruments enabling parental monitoring on the content of programmes viewed by children emerges the need for Europe to envisage...

The Broadcasting Standards Commission has included a statement in its most recent Bulletin, arising from its consideration of complaints made against several programmes "within Channel 5's late night erotic strands". The Commission, relying on recently published evidence, notes the public's increasing acceptance and tolerance of "sex on television" only if it is "justified within a dramatic or informative context". The point of the programmes complained of was "clearly erotic". The Commission stated that "the inclusion, for its own sake, of erotic material in a free to air television service is...