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On 12 September 2014 the European Commission published its Feedback Paper on the public consultation responses it received following the release of its Green Paper on ‘Preparing for a Fully Converged Audiovisual World: Growth, Creation and Values in 2013 (see IRIS 2013-6/5). The purpose of the Green Paper had been to initiate a public discussion on the implications of the rapidly transforming audiovisual landscape, and in particular media convergence (i.e. the progressive merger of traditional broadcast services and the internet). The Commission opened its public consultation on the Green Paper...

Two United Nations agencies, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have jointly published new Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection. The original guidelines had been drawn up in 2009, following the establishment of the Child Online Protection (COP) Initiative by the ITU. But with the rapid advancements in technology and convergence in the intervening years, these UN agencies launched a consultation process in 2013 with civil society, industry and children, on updating the guidelines.  Following the consultation process, the...

On 24 June 2014 the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources published the report of the Internet Content Advisory Group. The Group, which consisted of experts in the fields of child safety and online behaviour, as well as legal, technical and industry experts, and a student representative, considered emerging issues in the area of online content and its general impact on the lives of children and young people (see IRIS 2014-4/22). The Group were asked to consider a number of issues arising for society, and in particular for children and young people, from the dramatic growth in...

In a decision of 8 July 2014 that is yet to be published in full (case no. 7 A 4679/12), the Verwaltungsgericht Hannover (Hanover Administrative Court - VG) ruled that an episode of the RTL television series “Die Super Nanny” broadcast in 2011 breached human dignity. Both the programme itself and trailers for the series repeatedly showed several scenes of brutality in which a single mother shouted at, threatened and hit her children a number of times. In the programme, the “Super Nanny” persuaded the mother to stop treating her children with such extreme violence and to attend a suitable course...

On 10 June 2014, the Council of Electronic Media (“CEM”) published its report on the 2014 European Parliament elections. The Election Code of Bulgaria for the first time requires the identification of both the free of charge political campaigning and the paid forms of political campaigning (Article 179 of the Election Code). The monitoring has demonstrated, as regards TV programmes, that there is a trend to distinguish in a clearer manner paid content from non-paid content. Part of the media service providers (Nova television, bTV, TV 7, Bulgaria on air, Eurocom Tsarevets, bTV Action, TV Plus)...