COMECON MEDIA

Source: ECA - eca.europa.eu

EU support helps Euronews to broaden its coverage of European affairs, but funding needs to be better monitored, say EU Auditors.


The EU’s support of an average of €24.5 million a year has helped Euronews to develop a unique business model and broadcast programmes on EU affairs in a number of languages, according to a new rapid case review by the European Court of Auditors. However, most citizens in the EU are unable to access it, as the channel is not a public service broadcaster in any Member State. Moreover, the auditors identified shortcomings in the way the European Commission monitors the performance of Euronews against agreed objectives and commitments made. Euronews was created in 1993 by ten European public broadcasters to reinforce European identity and integration, and the EU has provided it with financial support since then. In recent years, it has changed its ownership structure by acquiring private investors. The auditors analysed the funding of …

Source: EU Commission Brussels, 10 May 2019 The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Bonnier Broadcasting by Telia Company under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission is concerned that the merged entity may shut out competitors from the audio-visual sector in Finland and Sweden. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “The in-depth investigation we are opening today aims to ensure that Telia's proposed acquisition of Bonnier Broadcasting will not lead to higher prices for or less choice of TV channels for consumers in Finland and Sweden.” As a retail TV distributor, Telia Company licenses TV channels (including ancillary rights) from TV broadcasters, such as Bonnier Broadcasting, to include them in its retail audio-visual offering. The proposed acquisition of Bonnier Broadcasting by Telia Company would create a vertically integrated player in the audio-visual industry in Denmark, Finland, Nor…

19 April 2019 to 7 June 2019
Study on the implementation of the new provisions in the revised AVMSD About AVMSDPolicies Blog posts News Events Funding Consultations Reports and studies Laws Related topicsAudiovisual & Media Services Media Freedom and Pluralism Supporting media and digital culture The European Commission is launching a call for tenders to carry out a study on the implementation of the new provisions in the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD - study reference: SMART 2018/0066) The study will focus on:
video-sharing platformsmedia ownership rules and transparencyoverlays in audiovisual media serviceswith the following main objectives:
Video-sharing platforms: the study will provide a snapshot of the video-sharing platforms in the EU. The study will document, inter alia, their technical specificities, the measures already in place to protect users from hate speech and content harmful to minors, whether and how they enforce their terms of service and their pra…

Link - Source: EU Commission

Strasbourg, 28 March 2019 What is the current situation for online transmission and retransmission of television and radio programmes? Broadcasters are increasingly offering their broadcasts online (for instance through their simulcasting or catch-up services). However, such online programming often remains unavailable in the other Member States, even if there is interest abroad to access it. The clearance of rights for such uses can be particularly burdensome: a broadcaster needs to obtain authorizations from various rightsholders, for different categories of works and other protected content, and separately for every Member State, where the programme will be available online. Retransmission services aggregate TV and radio channels into packages. They are increasingly provided using technologies other than cable (for example IPTV), but the current rules facilitating rights' clearance for operators of those services are limited to retransmissions by cable.…

In December 2018, the co-legislators reached an agreement on a European Commission proposal for facilitating the cross-border provision of online TV and radio content. The co-legislators agreed to extend the 'country of origin' principle to a limited set of online services, and to facilitate the licensing of retransmission services over the internet under certain conditions. Furthermore, at the request of the European Parliament, the compromise text contains new rules on 'direct injection', a process used increasingly by broadcasters to transmit their programmes to the public. The compromise also includes a change of the instrument from a regulation into a directive in order to leave flexibility to the Member States to implement the new rules on 'direct injection'. The Member States' negotiators and the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) endorsed the political agreement in January 2019. The compromise text must now gain the approval of the European Parliament d…

Link

March 8, 2019

United States Department of State
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL)
Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO):
DRL Promoting Internet Freedom in Ukraine
This is the announcement of funding opportunity number SFOP0005589Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: 19.345Type of Solicitation: Full and Open CompetitionApplication Deadline: Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 11:59 PM ESTFunding Floor (lowest $$ value): $500,000Funding Ceiling (highest $$ value): $1,180,500Anticipated Number of Awards: 1-2Type of Award: Grant and/or Cooperative AgreementPeriod of Performance (example 12-18 months, 2 -5 years): 1-3 yearsAnticipated Time to Award (pending availability of funds): 3-6 months A. Project Description

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for programs that promote Internet freedom in Ukraine. In support of the National Cyber Strategy fo…

Source: EU Council

The EU is amending its copyright legal framework to make it fit-for-purpose in today's digital environment. Representatives of the Romanian presidency of the Council today reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a draft directive that introduces changes to existing EU copyright rules as part of creating a true EU digital single market. The agreement will now be submitted for confirmation by member states at the Council.
"Today's agreement is a sign of our determination to set up a well-functioning digital single market that encourages the development of new content-based businesses in the interest of all European citizens. We will, therefore, unlock the opportunities of the digital world, both for creators, whose rights should be fully respected and for the European citizens, who should take advantage of the benefits brought by the Digital Single Market."
Valer Daniel Breaz, Romanian Minister for Culture and National Identity Re…

Source: www.curia.europa.eu
Court of Justice of the European Union
PRESS RELEASE No 1/19
Luxembourg, 10 January 2019
Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-136/17
G.C. and Others v CNIL
Advocate General Szpunar proposes that the Court should hold that the operator of a search engine must, as a matter of course, accede to a request for the de-referencing of sensitive data
The operator of a search engine must, however, ensure protection of the right of access to information and of the right of freedom of expression
A dispute has arisen between, on the one hand, Ms G.C., Mr A.F., Mr B.H. and Mr E.D. and, on the other hand, the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (French Data Protection Authority) (‘the CNIL’) with regard to four of that authority’s decisions refusing to put the company Google Inc. on formal notice to de-reference various links, included in the results list displayed following a search made on the basis of their names, to web pages published by third parties. The…

Source: www.curia.europa.eu
Court of Justice of the European Union PRESS RELEASE No 2/19
Luxembourg, 10 January 2019
Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-507/17
Google v CNIL (France)
Advocate General Szpunar proposes that the Court should limit the scope of the de-referencing that search engine operators are required to carry out to the EU
By decision of 21 May 2015, the President of the French Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties; ‘the CNIL’) served formal notice on Google that, when acceding to a request from a natural person for the removal of links to web pages from the list of results displayed following a search performed on the basis of that person’s name, it must apply that removal to all of its search engine’s domain name extensions.
Google refused to comply with that formal notice, merely removing the links in question from only the results displayed following a search performed on the domain nam…