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At the end of November 2008, the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) agreed to form a coalition government. They also adopted a government programme for the five-year parliamentary term. The Government is hoping to achieve the following media policy objectives between now and 2013: 1. The KommAustria media authority will be strengthened further. Rather than acting monocratically as it has up to now, its decisions will be taken in future by a media committee, a public broadcasting committee and two telecommunications committees. Additional committees may...

The legislative package on EU Telecoms Reform continues to wind its way through the article 251 co-decision procedure necessary for its official adoption as European law. Following the European Parliament’s vote earlier this autumn (see IRIS 2008-10: 4), the European Commission, on 5 and 6 November 2008, brought forth its revised legislative proposals. The new texts took into consideration the amendments adopted by Parliament and aimed at paving the way for agreement on identical terms between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. The Council itself deliberated the drafts on 27...

On 3 October 2008, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Resolution 1636 (2008) and Recommendation 1848 (2008), both of which are entitled “Indicators for media in a democracy” and are based on an identically-named report. The Resolution emphasises the importance of freedom of expression, information and the media in democratic society and it puts forward a list of 27 “basic principles” which it regards as a suitable basis for analyses of the media situations in Council of Europe Member States. This (check-)list comprises a wide range of media and journalistic freedoms...

On 3 October 2008, the Council of Europe published two sets of guidelines aiming to encourage respect and to promote privacy, security and freedom of expression within the context of internet access and internet games. These guidelines therefore cover a series of online activities, such as e-mail use, chat or blog participation and online game playing. The guidelines are the product of close cooperation of the Council with European online game designers and publishers and with Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The Human Rights Guidelines for Online Game Providers were developed by the Council...

In 1997, during a television programme that focused on the problems with access to administrative documents stored in the archives of the former Romanian State security services, C.I., a journalist with the satirical weekly ‘Caţavencu’, alleged that a politician, Liviu Petrina, had been active in the secret police Securitate. A few weeks later, the same journalist published an article reiterating his allegations. Similar allegations of collaboration by Petrina with the Securitate under the regime of Ceauşescu were also published by another journalist, M.D. Petrina lodged two sets of...