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A new Recommendation on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, adopted by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers’ (CM) on 31 March 2010, contains a number of provisions concerning freedom of expression, “hate speech” and the media. Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 is addressed to all member states of the Council of Europe. It comprises a substantive part with five recommendations and an appendix that sets out a range of relevant “principles and measures”. The recommendations concern both direct and indirect discrimination based on sexual orientation...

The Digital Economy Act received royal assent on 8 April 2010 and came into force (with the exception of certain sections which were granted immediate effect) on 8 June 2010. The Act is intended to regulate digital media and, to a large extent, implements the legislative proposals of last summer’s Digital Britain report (see IRIS 2009-8: 14/20). The Act includes provisions relating to the UK’s communications infrastructure, public service broadcasting, copyright licensing and online infringement of copyright, as well as security and safety online and in video games. Most of the provisions of the...

The possibility of circumventing the legal provision (Article 8 para.1, Presidential Decree 77/2003) that forbids the transmission of images filmed by hidden means was established by a decision of the plenary session of the Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας (Council of State). In Decision No. 1213/2010, Greece’s highest administrative court found that the televised transmission of images captured by hidden means constitutes a limitation on the constitutionally protected right of the portrayed person to their image, as a particular expression of the right to the respect for private life, and cannot, in...

The Digital Economy Act 2010, Section 3, concerning ‘Online infringement of copyright’, has amended the Communications Act 2003, Section 124. The Explanatory Memorandum for Section 3 of the 2010 Act states that the Act imposes duties on Internet Service Providers to (a) “notify their subscribers if the internet protocol (“IP”) addresses associated with them are reported by copyright owners as being used to infringe copyright” and (b) “keep track of the number of reports about each subscriber and, on request by a copyright owner, compile on an anonymous basis a list of those subscribers who are...

The Vlaamse Raad voor de Journalistiek (Flemish Council for Journalism Ethics) has issued a directive (15 April 2010) on identification in a judicial context. This Council is an independent self-regulating institution that supervises journalistic work in all Flemish media upon the filing of a complaint by a member of the public, thereby guaranteeing that journalistic ethics are upheld. It can also issue ethical directives and recommendations on its own initiative. The new ethical directive is concerned with the way the media deal with suspects, persons convicted of a crime and victims in news coverage....