What’s New in the Media ?

In December 2011, the “Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting Contribution” (Rundfunkbeitragsstaatsvertrag) received final approval by the legislature. All sixteen state parliaments (Länderparlamente) enacted a new funding regime for Public Service Broadcasting in Germany, proposed by the sixteen state governments (Landesregierungen). The new legislation marks a fundamental shift. It places an obligation on every household and company to contribute to public service broadcasting. The pre-existing legislation provided that the fee was only to be paid on the basis of an actual device – a television set, radio or a computer- following notification by the holder. The new regime links the fee to the private flat or a company, irrespective of any device. More »

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A high-level group to provide recommendations for the respect, protection, support and promotion of media freedom and pluralism in Europe has been created by European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes. The members of the group have been selected for their expertise in their respective fields and for their complete independence.

The group, meeting for the first time on 11 October, will draw up a report for the Commission with recommendations for the respect, protection, support and promotion of pluralism and freedom of the media in Europe. More »

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The Greek Government has formed a special committee to examine the possibility of enacting new legislation in order to deal with issues relating to the civil and criminal liability for libel, defamation, calumny and other acts or offenses committed by website/blog administrators or website owners or users of the respective services.

The MEDIADEM project contributed to the work of the committee by compiling and providing information concerning the relevant applicable rules in other European countries. More »

A Reporters Without Borders (RWB) mission report on the decline in media freedom in Greece has just been published. The RWB’s team visited Athens in the summer of 2011 to investigate the reasons behind the country’s decline in media freedom ratings. Greece fell sharply in the 2010 World Press Freedom index, ending up last in Europe in the 70^th place (in the 2009 ranking it was in the 35^th place), together with Bulgaria. Accounting for this worrying trend, the report concludes, is mainly the economic and financial crisis which exposed the weaknesses and malpractices of a defective media market which has been for years artificially supported. More »

In July 2011, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) published a report that examines Internet regulation in the OSCE member states. The study was commissioned by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and was carried out by Istanbul Bilgi University. Its results will provide an important reference point for monitoring future developments in the field of Internet regulation. More »

On 19 August 2011, the Minister of State and government spokesman Elias Mosialos announced the restructuring of the Greek public service broadcaster, ERT. The reduction of ERT’s expenses, which fit in with the government’s broader plans to reduce public spending, is at the heart of the proposed changes. According to Mr Mosialos, the reforms also aim at establishing a public service broadcaster that operates in a transparent manner and which is ‘not politicised’. An independent committee will be formed in order to examine the management practices of public service broadcasters in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK. More »

The Human Rights Committee, the monitoring body of the United Nations’ Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, discusses a draft General Comment relating to freedom of opinion and freedom of expression. The Covenant enshrines in Article 19 basic communicative freedoms like the freedom to hold an opinion without interference and the right to freedom of expression including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas in any form. The Human Rights Committee consists of 18 independent experts. Part of its tasks lays in the interpretation of the Covenant’s rights and the ensuing obligations for state parties to the Covenant in the light of its decisions and of societal developments. More »

Spanish public prosecutors have brought various internet sites and blogs to court, because of anonymous insults addressed in them to polititians and high-rank members of the judiciary. The office in charge of this prosecution is the one based in Castilla-La Mancha as the persons affected by insults are all related to this region. One of those persons is the recently elected president of the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha, Ms María Dolores de Cospedal, who is also the Secretary General of the Partido Popular, one of the two main political parties in Spain.  More »

The results of a public consultation, The open internet and net neutrality in Europe,  that was launched by the European Commission on 9 November 2010, revealed a near consensus on the importance of the openness of the internet, yet with divisions over how to preserve it. The consultation that lasted from 30 June to 30 September 2010 attracted a wide range of stakeholders, including the body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC), network operators, internet service providers (ISPs), national authorities, consumer and civil society organisations as well as individuals. More »

Credits: Arnisto.com/ Creative Commons

On Tuesday, 5th of October 2010 the analogue television broadcasts have been switched off for all national television channels in the Republic of Croatia, thus marking a transition to digital television broadcasting. Several low-power analog transmitters will be in function until the end of the year as the digital transmission of local and regional television is still in testing phase, and due to the fact that a number of households are not fully covered with digital signal. To ease the transition to digital transmission the government has developed a subsidy system of vouchers to users for the purchase of receivers for all digital terrestrial television signals. More »