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A computer specialist at the University of Birmingham used the computer to which he had access in the course of his employment to store data which permitted him to display indecent pictures of children on the screen and make prints thereof. The question before the court was whether the images so stored constituted `photographs' under Section 1 of the Children Act 1978 and whether the distribution of the images was an offence under the 1959 and 1964 Obscene Publications Act. Generally, the question was: if these Acts were passed at a time that Parliament could not have envisaged the technical capabilities...

On 12 November 1996, on the basis of a Recommendation by the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, Parliament discussed the common position established by the Council of the European Union ( see IRIS 1996-9: 8  and IRIS 1996-6: 7) with a view to the adoption of a Directive amending the present `Television without Frontiers' Directive. The Culture Committee had proposed some radical amendments to the Council's common position. Notably it proposed that the obligation for EU Member States to ensure `where practicable', that broadcasters reserve for European works a majority proportion...

On 16 October 1996, the European Commission issue two new texts on further development of the information society: a Communication on illegal and harmful content on the Internet and a Green Paper on the protection of minors and human dignity in audio-visual and information services. The two texts are complementary, both in time-scale and content. While the Communication covers short-term measures which concern the specific problems of the Internet, and also go beyond the protection of minors and human dignity, the Green Paper focuses specifically on those two issues. Unlike the Communication,...

The Swedish Broadcasting Commission has examined TV3, a Swedish satellite TV broadcaster established in United Kingdom. Due to its establishment in London, TV3 comes under the supervision of the Independent Television Commission (ITC). Earlier, The Swedish Broadcasting Commission considered the Swedish Satellite Act as not applicable to TV3 ( see IRIS 1995-10: 11). Despite this, the Commission has now reported to the Swedish Government about TV3's broadcasts from the UK aiming at the Swedish audience. In a special report to the Ministry of Culture the Broadcasting Commission examines whether the...

Hervé Bourges, Chairman of the French media supervisory authority, the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), presented the 1995 annual report of the CSA's activities on 12 September 1996. In addition to the balance sheets of the television channels, the report also includes a statement on the sanctions taken against radio and television companies. Since 1.2.1994, the CSA has authority to penalise not only on the broadcasters it licences, but also the public-sector channels France 2, France 3, La Cinquième and RFO. Usually the sanction process progresses from a first stage of warning, with...