IRIS newsletter 2025-6

Publisher:

European Audiovisual Observatory
76, allée de la Robertsau
F-67000 STRASBOURG

Tel. : +33 (0) 3 90 21 60 00
E-mail: obs@obs.coe.int
www.obs.coe.int

Comments and Suggestions to: iris@obs.coe.int

Executive Director: Susanne Nikoltchev

 

Maja Cappello, Editor • Sophie Valais, Amélie Lacourt, Olivier Hermanns, Justine Radel, Deputy Editors (European Audiovisual Observatory)

Documentation/Press Contact: Alison Hindhaugh

Tel.: +33 (0)3 90 21 60 10

E-mail: alison.hindhaugh@coe.int

Proofreading of machine translations:

Aurélie Courtinat • Paul Green • Marco Polo Sarl • Nathalie Sturlèse •  Erwin Rohwer • Sonja Schmidt • Ulrike Welsch

Proofreading of original texts:

Olivier Hermanns and Amélie Lacourt • Linda Byrne • David Windsor • Aurélie Courtinat •  Barbara Grokenberger  

Web Design:

Coordination: Cyril Chaboisseau, European Audiovisual Observatory


ISSN 2078-6158

© 2025 European Audiovisual Observatory, Strasbourg (France)

To promote inclusive language, we follow the guidelines of the Council of Europe.

Editorial

Audiovisual regulation is akin to Newton’s third law of motion: technology and market forces act, and the legislator reacts. And of course, there is a bit of a lag in between. There has been a lot of action since the AVMSD was last amended, and the reaction from Brussels is now keenly awaited. As a first step, the Council of the EU has adopted conclusions on the assessment of the legal framework for audiovisual media services and VSPs.

The protection of minors will certainly be one of many burning topics in the hands of EU legislators. While waiting for concrete proposals, the European Commission has published draft guidelines to ensure minors are adequately protected online.

This worry is also reflected in member states’ initiatives, like in Italy, where AGCOM has adopted new age verification mechanisms for websites and VSPs disseminating adult content, and in Germany with the publication of reports from youth media protection agencies documenting high numbers of reviews and complaints about content harmful to minors.

Other related topics keep national legislators, regulators and stakeholders busy: in Belgium, the digital services coordinator, along with other authorities, just unveiled their inaugural joint report on the implementation of the DSA. Meanwhile, Spain’s media regulator reported on how audiovisual media services are meeting their obligations to promote European works. In France, a new dialogue has started between generative AI developers and cultural rightsholders, aiming to find a path to foster innovation and protect creatives.

 

Enjoy the read!

Maja Cappello, Editor

European Audiovisual Observatory

International

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section) has held, unanimously, in its judgment in Avagyan v. Russia of 29 April 2025 that a conviction for the wilful dissemination of “untrue information” about the existence of Covid-19 cases amounted to a violation of the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The conviction was the outcome of administrative-offence proceedings concerning comments on Instagram questioning the existence of Covid-19 cases in a particular region in Russia. In May 2020, the applicant, Mariya Anatolyevna...

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In its judgment in Green v. the United Kingdom of 8 April 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), gave lengthy consideration to the scope and nature of parliamentary privilege/immunity in relation to the disclosure of confidential information that is subject to sub judice rules. A key question was whether the positive obligations of States Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights, pursuant to Article 8 of the Convention, require specific ex ante and ex post controls on parliamentary speech. The Court ultimately found that such a requirement does not exist at this point...

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The European Court of Human Rights has found a violation of a freelance journalist’s right to freedom of expression as a result of an assault by police officers and the confiscation of his camera while filming a demonstration that turned violent. The Fifth Section of the Court delivered its judgment in the case of Hayk Grigoryan v. Armenia on 3 April 2025. On 17 July 2016, an armed group stormed and seized a police building in Yerevan; took police officers hostage; and made political demands, including for the Armenian President to resign. In the days that followed, protest rallies in...

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EUROPEAN UNION

On 13 May 2025, the European Commission published Draft Guidelines on the protection of minors online. The guidelines stem from Article 28 DSA and aim to assist providers of online platforms accessible to minors to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, on their platforms. These guidelines were developed following extensive research and consultations with various stakeholders, including children via the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) online platform, as well as providers of online platforms, and experts from civil...

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On 27 May 2025, the European Commission opened formal proceedings against four pornographic platforms: Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos. Breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in relation to the protection of minors online are suspected of having been committed by the platforms. The risks detected relate in particular to the following:  - Appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, in particular with age verification tools to safeguard minors from adult content. - Risk assessment and mitigation measures regarding...

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Following the formal proceedings initiated on 19 February 2024 to evaluate potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA) by TikTok, the European Commission issued its preliminary findings on 15 May 2025, stating that TikTok appeared to be in violation of the Act. An in-depth investigation, involving the analysis of internal company documents, testing of TikTok's tools, and interviews with experts in the field, led the Commission to find that the platform had failed to fulfil its obligation to publish an advertisement repository. The Commission considers that TikTok's advertisement...

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On 9 April 2025, the European Commission published a Communication on the AI Continent Action Plan. The Communication outlines a set of actions to achieve the goal of becoming a global leader in AI and a leading AI continent. It highlights the need for ambition, speed and foresight identified at the European Union level to shape the future of AI to enhance the block’s competitiveness, its safeguards and advances of democratic values, as well as protecting its cultural diversity. To become an AI Continent, the EU has identified a need to accelerate and intensify efforts in five key domains. First,...

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Many significant developments for the cultural sector emerged from the recent meeting of EU ministers for education, youth, culture, and sports, held on 12 and 13 May 2025. The Council of the EU adopted conclusions on assessing the legal framework for audiovisual media services and video-sharing platform services, in anticipation of the upcoming evaluation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Additionally, the Council adopted conclusions on supporting young artists and cultural and creative professionals as they begin their careers. Key priorities for the audiovisual sector: Ministers...

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NATIONAL

On 27 March 2025, the National Council (Nationalrat) adopted, with the votes of the ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS parliamentary parties, an amendment to the ORF Act (ORF-Gesetz), which was subsequently approved by the Federal Council (Bundesrat) on 10 April 2025. The legislative amendment entered into force on 1 April 2025. The legislative amendment was adopted in response to a 2023 ruling by the Austrian Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof), which found certain provisions concerning the composition of the ORF Foundation Council (Stiftungsrat) and the Audience Council (Publikumsrat)...

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Belgium's digital services coordinator (DSC) and other authorities responsible for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act – DSA) recently published their first joint report, covering the year 2024. The Belgian DSC is the Institut belge des services postaux et des télécommunications (Belgian postal and telecommunications authority – IBPT), which is also one of the competent authorities alongside the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish media regulator – VRM), the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (Higher Audiovisual...

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In two decisions dated 24 April 2025, the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court) (case nos. VG 32 L 25/25 and VG 32 L 26/25) rejected urgent applications by Cyprus-based Aylo Freesites Ltd for interim legal protection against blocking orders relating to its German-language telemedia services ‘Pornhub’ and ‘Youporn’. The blocking orders were based on a decision taken by the state media authorities’ Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media – KJM) in a longstanding investigation that has also resulted...

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In its decision of 14 April 2025, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court – BVerwG) rejected an application from a newspaper publisher (the applicant) for information concerning the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic to be disclosed by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service – BND). By way of a temporary injunction, the applicant had submitted a list of questions to the BND, asking when the BND had informed the Federal Chancellery of its findings on the origin of the virus, as well as whether and, if so, when this information had been classified as...

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On 28 April 2025, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media – KJM) published its 11th activity report, which documents a significant increase in the number of cases relating to the protection of children and young people from harmful content over the past two years. Hate, incitement and disinformation are described as the dominant themes, particularly in online media. Shortly afterwards, on 13 May 2025, the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia (voluntary self-monitoring body for multimedia service providers – FSM) also published...

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New data has been published on how audiovisual media services fulfil obligations on European works (quotas and prominence) in Spain. The regulator, the CNMC (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia), has released the monitoring report for the 2022-2023 period. As the authority responsible for overseeing compliance, the CNMC assesses national requirements under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). The report covers a transitional period in Spanish regulation: it reflects both the application of the earlier General Audiovisual Communication Law of 2010 and the current...

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C8 lodged an appeal with the Conseil d’Etat (Council of State) against the EUR 300,000 fine imposed on it by the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (the French audiovisual regulator – ARCOM) in respect of an episode of the programme “Touche pas à mon poste” broadcast on 5 October 2022. The host, Cyril Hanouna, had made offensive remarks about the Mayor of Paris, who had not been present in the studio at the time, in response to the decision not to install giant screens for the World Cup in Qatar. In particular,...

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On 2 June, Rachida Dati, the French minister of culture, and Clara Chappaz, the French minister for artificial intelligence and digital technology, chaired the launch meeting of the consultation cycle between representatives of generative AI model developers and representatives of rights holders in the cultural and media sectors. Open until November, this consultation cycle, which will be co-piloted by Marc Bourreau, professor of economics, and Maxime Boutron, counsel at the Conseil d'État (Council of State), is designed to promote mutual understanding of the respective challenges...

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On 23 May 2025, the Irish national media regulatory authority, Coimisiún na Meán (the Media Commission) de-designated Reddit as a video-sharing platform (VSP) service. The de-designation does not come as an indication that the initial designation of the service was incorrect, but due to the fact that service provider of Reddit is no longer under the jurisdiction of Ireland, and therefore not subject to the Media Commission’s online safety codes. Reddit had been designated as a VSP services at the end of 2023, when the Media Commission issued a series of notices to services...

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On 12 May 2025, the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) adopted the new technical and procedural measures that website operators and video-sharing platforms which disseminate adult content in Italy must adopt to verify the age of users (Regulation). The Regulation was adopted pursuant to Article 13-bis of Law Decree No. 123 of 15 September 2023 which provides that “minors are prohibited from accessing pornographic content, as it undermines their dignity and compromises their physical and mental well-being, constituting a public health issue”. That same provision then expressly...

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On 13 May 2025, the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) launched a public consultation aimed at reviewing the guidelines on the prominence of audiovisual and radio media services of general interest (SGIs). It it worth remembering that the Italian AVMS Code provides that adequate prominence must be given to audiovisual and radio media services of general interest provided through any platform. The Italian AVMS Code then assigns to AGCOM the task of defining, by means of specific guidelines, the criteria for qualifying a service as a service of general interest, as well as the methods and...

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