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On 11 June 1996, compromise suggestions by the Presidency enabled the Council to reach full political agreement, by qualified majority, on a common position regarding amendment of Directive 89/552/EEC (the "Television without Frontiers" Directive). The common position will be formally adopted when the text has been finalised; it will then be sent to the European Parliament for a second reading under the joint decision procedure. The Belgian, Greek and Irish delegations have indicated that they will abstain in the vote; Sweden will vote against. The common position will incorporate most of the...

The Broadcasting Standards Council, the body established under the 1990 Broadcasting Act to monitor the portrayal of violence, sex and matters related to taste and decency in television, cable, radio and satellite services, has just published its fourth annual monitoring survey. The findings relate to three areas: violence, sexual activity and 'bad language'. The key issue of audience concern remains the depiction of violence. However, the first significant change in the proportion of those registering a concern about this issue is recorded in this annual report (for 1995) - 57% saying that there...

On 14.12.1995 the People's Council of the Slovak Republic adopted legislation on the film industry. The new act covers the production and commercialization of cinema and video films, but not productions purely for television. As well as giving a range of definitions, the act contains certain obligations incumbent on producers of audiovisual works in the Slovak Republic and commercialization companies (registration duty, obligation to comply with provisions for the protection of children and young people), prohibits the commercialisation of violent and pornographic films, and contains provisions...

On 11 June 1996, a three judge panel granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of two provisions of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 ("CDA") designed to keep children from receiving sexually explicit materials on the Internet. The CDA constitutes Title V of the historic Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed on 8 February ( see IRIS 1996-3: 7-10). In ACLU v. Janet Reno, the court found sections 223(a)(1)(B) and 223(a)(2) as well as 223(d)(1) and 223(d)(2) of the CDA to be an unconstitutional abridgement of First Amendment free speech rights. Section 223(a) prohibits the transmission...

The Dutch association of Internet providers (Vereniging van Nederlandse Internetproviders, NLIP) has opened on 20 June 1996 a complaints counter for child pornography (Meldpunt Kinderporno) that is distributed on the Internet. Users that come across illegal material can notify the complaints counter. The counter will first ask the provider of the material to remove it. If the provider does not respond, the office of the Public Prosecutor will be notified. With this initiative the Internetproviders in the Netherlands want to show their willingness to cooperate in the fight against the distribution...