IRIS newsletter 2024-6

Publisher:

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

Tel. : +33 (0) 3 90 21 60 00
Fax : +33 (0) 3 90 21 60 19
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, 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

Translations:

Sabine Bouajaja, European Audiovisual Observatory (co-ordination) • Paul Green • Marco Polo Sarl • Nathalie Sturlèse • Brigitte Auel •   Erwin Rohwer • Sonja Schmidt • Ulrike Welsch

Corrections:

Sabine Bouajaja, European Audiovisual Observatory (co-ordination) • Sophie Valais and Amélie Lacourt • Linda Byrne • Glenn Ford • David Windsor • Aurélie Courtinat •  Barbara Grokenberger  

Web Design:

Coordination: Cyril Chaboisseau, European Audiovisual Observatory
ISSN 2078-6158

© 2024 European Audiovisual Observatory, Strasbourg (France)

Editorial

What is illegal offline is also illegal online… or so they say. It is also true that online activities present their own set of problems and require specific legislative intervention.

As a result, many countries in the European Union and beyond continue to work diligently on the regulation of cyberspace, and several legislative developments and decisions have been announced recently. As has been widely expected for some time, the Irish regulator has published an updated draft Online Safety Code and submitted it to the European Commission, slowly leading to full transposition of the AVMS Directive in all EU member states. In Spain, the Council of Ministers recently approved a bill on the protection of minors in the digital environment, which notably raises the minimum age for access to platforms from 14 to 16. Another example is France, where the law on the security and regulation of the digital space was promulgated in May. And at a more global level, both the Council of Europe and the EU finalised the long-awaited frameworks on artificial intelligence. 

What is illegal offline is also illegal online ... but enforcement offline is not the same as enforcement online. Given the amount of legislation created specifically for the online world in recent years, it remains to be seen how feasible its enforcement will be. Small examples are already emerging, such as the recent actions in Italy in relation to gambling advertising.Time will tell.

Otherwise, let me tell you that the Observatory has recently published two new legal (and free) reports online: "Media Literacy and the Empowerment of Users " and “Curtains Up on Regulation and Support Measures for the Cinema Exhibition Sector ”.

Enjoy the read!

 

Maja Cappello, Editor

European Audiovisual Observatory

International

In November 2022, the Global Online Safety Regulators Network (the Network) was launched, as the first dedicated forum for independent online safety regulators around the world. It aims to provide regulators with a network to share experience, expertise and evidence, to enable coherent international approaches to online safety regulation. Its members include ARCOM (France), Coimisiún na Meán (Ireland), the Council for Media Services (Slovakia) and Ofcom (United Kingdom, current chair) for Europe, as well as eSafety (Australia), OSC (Fiji), KCSC (Republic of Korea) and FPB (South Africa)....

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COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Adopted on 17 May 2024, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law (Convention on AI) ensures that the development and deployment of AI respect fundamental human rights and democratic values. This Convention, set to open for signature on 5 September 2024, underscores the global dimension of AI governance and the need for international cooperation. The Convention on AI will apply to those states that choose to sign it (signatories). The text contains general principles and obligations, setting standards with regard to AI...

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in a case concerning the sharing of a Facebook post criticising a municipality. The case started in 2014 when K. published a post on his Facebook page calling on the inhabitants of Tata, a town in the northwest of Hungary, to participate in a demonstration as a protest against the sale of a building belonging to the Tata municipality. According to K. the building was sold for an unreasonably low price to a local businessman, who...

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of a high-ranked politician’s right to reputation under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because the highest Moldovan court had refused to interfere with a defamatory Facebook post by another politician. The Moldovan Supreme Court of Justice had found that the Facebook message, based on an unverified Note allegedly from the Security and Information Service (SIS), was posted by a politician of the opposition who, in a double capacity of “journalist”, in the sense of informing the public via...

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EUROPEAN UNION

Following our recent article on the adoption by the European Parliament of the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) in March 2024 (2024-3:1/3), the Council of the European Union greenlighted the text on 21 May 2024.  Article 50(4) imposes transparency obligations on deployers of AI systems when they generate or manipulate content (deep fake): the content shall be labelled as generated/manipulated. An exemption to the rule applies when said content forms part of an evidently artistic, creative, satirical or fictional work: the transparency obligation is then limited to the disclosure of...

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On 13 May 2024, the European Commission announced that DG CNECT, the Directorate-General responsible for the enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA), has signed an administrative arrangement with Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s media regulator. Similar agreements had already been signed between the Commission and the French and Irish media regulators (respectively the Autorité de regulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique and Coimisiún na Meán). The arrangement will support both actors’ supervisory work with regard to online platforms;...

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NATIONAL

On 14 May 2024, amendments to the Gambling Act were published in issue 42 of the State Gazette. The amendments introduced a prohibition in paragraph 1 of Article 10 against gambiling advertising in radio and television programmes, except for the broadcast of the draws of the state-owned "Bulgarian Sports Totalisator" and the announcement of these draws (point 1), and in printed works and electronic media, including websites (point 3). The motives for this legislative decision are to prevent widespread solicitation of gambling and to protect the interests of minors. The following additional...

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On 11 April 2024, in a legal dispute concerning a tweet by journalist Julian Reichelt on the X social media platform, in which he claimed that the German federal government had paid millions of euros in development aid “to the Taliban”, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court – BVerfG) ruled that the lower court had wrongly classified the tweet as a false statement of fact without taking the context into account and that its decision should therefore be overturned. The lower court had ignored the importance of freedom of expression in relation to criticism of...

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On 30 April 2024, the Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities) published its 11th monitoring report on private media accessibility in Germany. The report notes a rise in the number of accessible services. Particular progress has been made in the area of subtitling, while the use of audio description, sign language and plain language remains less common. The report also looks ahead at broadcasters’ plans to improve accessibility in the future. Both the expansion of accessible services and their monitoring by the state media authorities are based on provisions of the Medienstaatsvertrag...

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On 23 April 2024, the Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities) updated their guidelines on the key principles for election advertising in the form of political party election broadcasts by national private broadcasters. The guidelines contain information on broadcasters’ obligation to allocate airtime for election broadcasts, the need to guarantee equal opportunities, authorised parties and other political organisations, admissible content of advertising spots, the calculation of appropriate airtime, broadcasting slots, labelling of election advertising and reimbursement of costs....

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On 19 December 2023 the Danish Parliament passed a bill on the contribution of certain media service providers to the promotion of Danish culture (the Act on Cultural Contribution). However, due to a procedural irregularity, the EU Commission had not been notified of the legislation in time; the bill did not therefore receive royal assent, and the legislative process had to be repeated. Consequently, a bill for the Act on Cultural Contribution was sent for a second round of public hearings with a deadline of 1 March 2024; it was presented in parliament on 12 April, then presented to the...

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On 4 June 2024, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved the Anteproyecto de la Ley Orgánica de Protección de los Menores en los Entornos Digitales (draft Organic Law on the Protection of Minors in Digital Environments). According to Félix Bolaños, Minister for the Presidency, Parliamentary Relations and Democratic Memory, the law aims to guarantee the rights of minors, in particular the fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 18 and 20 of the Spanish Constitution, i.e. the right to honour, personal and family privacy and one’s own image. The law begins...

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Law No. 2024-449 of 21 May 2024 aiming “to secure and regulate the digital space” was published in the French Official Gazette after being examined by the Conseil constitutionnel (Constitutional Council). The first section of the law aims to prevent minors accessing pornographic websites. To this end, it gives the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (French audiovisual regulator – ARCOM) the task of drawing up minimum technical standards that must be met by age verification systems set up by publishers and online video-sharing...

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On 15 May 2024, following a serious breakdown of law and order two days previously (armed confrontations, attacks on and destruction of public buildings, infrastructure and shops, with many human casualties and paralysed public services and transport networks), the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, declared a state of emergency in New Caledonia. The day before, it had been decided that access to the TikTok social network should be blocked in New Caledonia because it was being used to facilitate the violence. On the basis of Article L. 521-2 of the Administrative Justice Code, various...

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An Ofcom investigation today concluded that "People’s Forum: The Prime Minister" (the People’s Forum) broadcast on 12 February 2024 by GB News breached broadcasting due impartiality rules. The determination was considered in the context of serious and repeated breaches of Ofcom's impartiality rules, and as a consequence the regulator is considering a statutory sanction against GB News. Ofcom received 547 complaints about the People’s Forum which is a live, hour-long current affairs programme. The episode featured the prime minister, Rishi Sunak,...

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Despite objections by the European institutions, including the Venice Commission, despite mass protests in the capital and a veto by the country’s president, on 28 May 2024, the Georgian Parliament finally enforced the bill "On transparency of foreign influence" (the Law) which had been tabled by the ruling party “Georgian Dream” on 3 April 2024 and was strongly supported by the government (for more information, see: IRIS 2023-4:1/30 and IRIS 2024-5:1/16). The Law was rushed through (very little time separated the three readings in parliament), with no meaningful consultation...

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On 23 May 2024, the Coimisiún na Meán (Irish media regulatory authority) published an Information Pack for candidates to the local and European elections, held on 7 June in Ireland. The aim of this pack was to provide information on the role of the Irish media regulatory authority and to offer guidance for candidates on what to do when they are faced with harmful and/or illegal content online. The Pack includes further information on the rights of users when their post is removed for allegedly going against the platform's community standards under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The...

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Following its public consultation launched between 8 December 2023 and 31 January 2024, and consultation with its Youth Advisory Committee, Coimisiún na Meán, the Irish regulator, published an updated draft Online Safety Code on 27 May 2024. The Code, which will apply to video-sharing platforms (VSPs) headquartered in Ireland, was submitted to the European Commission on the same day. Back in December 2023, Coimisiún na Meán had already designated 10 VSP providers as falling under its jurisdiction (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok, Tumblr,...

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First, the Italian Council of State (through Judgment No. 4277 of 13 May 2024, regarding the Google Search service) and then the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) for Lazio (through Order No. 1940 of 16 May 2024, regarding the YouTube video-sharing platform service, and Order No. 2272 of 31 May 2024, regarding the X service) confirmed the sanctioning measures adopted by the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) against Google Ireland Limited and Twitter International Unlimited Company for violating the ban on advertising gambling with cash winnings introduced by Article 9 of Decree Law No....

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At its meeting on 26 April 2024, the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Moldova (CA), the national regulatory authority, adopted several decisions. One of them attracted a lot of attention as it heavily penalised the public broadcaster Găgăuziya Radio Televizionu (GRT) a regional public broadcaster which comprises a TV station and a radio station. By an earlier decision, the CA had initiated an inspection of compliance of the content of the GRT's programmes with the provisions of Articles 13 and 17 of the Audiovisual Media Services Code of the Republic of Moldova during the coverage...

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On 23 April 2024, the Gerechtshof Den Haag (Court of Appeal of The Hague) delivered a particularly important judgment on the protection of journalists from arrest when reporting on protests. Notably, the Court of Appeal held that the arrest of a photojournalist who had been travelling with a group of climate protestors, who was then taken to a police station and had his equipment and telephone seized, was “unlawful” and a violation of the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The case arose in October 2021, when the photojournalist...

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On 17 May 2024, the Autoriteit Consument en Markt (Netherlands Authority for Consumer and Markets - ACM) issued an important decision that the planned acquisition by DPG Media (DPG) of rival media company RTL Nederland (RTL) is to be the subject of an investigation. DPG publishes various Dutch newspapers, magazines, owns general news websites in the Netherlands, and is active on the Dutch radio market with national radio stations. RTL has several commercial television channels, offers streaming services, and offers general news online through its website. Notably, the ACM stated it foresees...

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