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On 5 October 2011, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly adopted Resolution 1834 (2011) and Recommendation 1980 (2011), both aimed at “combating ‘child abuse images’ through committed, transversal and internationally co-ordinated action.” The two policy initiatives are addressed to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers (Recommendation) vis-à-vis its member states (Resolution) and largely overlap content-wise. Apart from the “dark” nature of child abuse (Resolution, para. 2), the Parliamentary Assembly is “very concerned about the high prevalence of such crimes, […] the way in which...

Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, laid out several basic principles on Internet governance in a position paper released in December. Arguing that the Internet is becoming, more and more, an indispensable tool for all citizens to receive, seek and impart information, she said that governments have an obligation to enable their citizens to access the Internet unhindered; that they must create a legal environment that allows for independent and pluralistic media and the free flow of information across borders. Mijatović said that governments have a role to play when...

On 7 November 2011 Act no. 194/2011 on fighting activities with substances capable of having psychoactive effects, other than those stipulated in the regulations in force, was promulgated by the President of Romania and published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 796 of 10 November 2011 (Part I). The Act implements Directive 98/34/EC and establishes the legal framework applicable to products, other than those determined by existing legislation, capable of having psychoactive effects, by imposing measures to prevent, control and fight the consumption of such products. The maximum penalty for...

Following a case of advertising give-aways distributed to cinema audiences at the national release of a children’s film, the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman has, in interviews with the media, renewed her call for a ban on advertising in connection with film screenings to young audiences. At the national release (99 screens on 28 August 2011) of Coming Home (Til siste hinder), a girls-and-horses epic classified as “suitable for all ages” by the Norwegian Media Authority, the publishers of a magazine/member’s club targeting “horse-loving girls” had bags of advertising matter placed in the cinema seats....

After two years of work, the nationwide switch to DTV in France was completed on 29 November 2011. The result is a complete end to analog terrestrial broadcasting - “not an end, but a beginning”, according to one member of the CSA, referring to the “irresistible advent of connected television, which will make television and the Internet coexist on the same screen”. The combination of audiovisual content, which is heavily regulated, and content from the Internet, which is not regulated, indeed raises new questions concerning regulation. How will it be possible, for example, to protect young people...