Last updated in
1997, the Directive was instrumental in ensuring that viewers and
listeners in all Member States were entitled to access broadcasts
from any other Member State. It also harmonised rules relating to
broadcast advertising, the protection of minors and the right of
reply.
But since the last review of the Directive, new advertising
techniques, such as split screen, interactive advertising and
virtual advertising, have developed, and problems in applying the
existing, old-fashioned rules to these new technologies have
arisen.
The Commission set out its plans to update the Directive in
December, focusing on the need to reduce the regulatory burden on
Europe’s providers of TV and TV-like services and to allow them
more flexibility in financing their productions.
It also hopes to replace disparate national rules on the
protection of minors, incitement to racial hatred and surreptitious
advertising, with a basic, EU-wide minimum standard of protection
for audiovisual on-demand services.
The hatred issue was highlighted in December 2004, when the
French “Conseil d'Etat”, the highest administrative Court in
France, ordered the French-based Eutelsat Company to shut down
broadcasts from a Lebanese TV station known as Al Manar, following
accusations that its programmes were anti-Semitic and could incite
hatred.
According to the Commission, although legally registered as the
Lebanese Media Group Company in 1997, Al Manar has belonged to
Hezbollah culturally and politically from its inception. In
December 2004, the US Department of State put the station on the
Terrorist Exclusion List due to the channel's "incitement of
terrorist activity".
Discussing the Directive at a meeting last week, regulators from
the 25 EU Member States and Croatia, Turkey, Norway and
Liechtenstein, noted the growing economic and societal importance
of new on-demand audiovisual media services and of ensuring freedom
of expression in such media, but also discussed the danger that
they could become the next vehicle of hate.
The updated Directive, they said, will prohibit incitement to
racial or religious hatred not only for broadcasts but for all
audiovisual media services, irrespective of the technology used to
deliver and view them.
The regulators also supported plans to launch a new EU Intranet
Cooperation Forum as an effective means to combat clear cases of
incitement to hatred in broadcast and audiovisual media services.
The forum would respect the freedoms enshrined in the EU Charter of
Fundamental Rights and the need for judicial scrutiny of such
interventions by broadcast regulators, according to the
Commission.
“Cooperation between broadcasting regulators and the European
Commission is extremely important for the future of the audiovisual
landscape in Europe” said Information Society and Media
Commissioner Viviane Reding.
“The basis of our cooperation must be – first of all and most
important – freedom of expression and freedom of the media, as
cornerstones of our pluralist democratic society in Europe;
cultural diversity; and the commitment to our common European
societal values, which leads us to jointly fight against clear
forms of incitement to racial or religious hatred in the media,”
she added.
