As a result of the transition of Belgium from a unitary to a federal state, the political and the cultural landscape in Belgium is separated along language barriers. This means that there is a separation between the French-language media on the one hand and the Dutch-language or Flemish media on the other hand.  In other words, it is more correct to speak about two separate media landscapes, rather than about one general Belgian media landscape. Although these two media landscapes are separate, they present a number of similarities. The following sections will give a detailed overview of the Belgian media landscape.   Two separate media landscapes   Since the 1970s, Belgium...

Google recently announced to make its 'Google News' service "opt-in" instead of  "opt-out" in Germany as of 1 August 2013. This decision by Google is a direct reaction to a new German copyright law that will take effect as of the same date. In practice, this means that Google News will only show results from those German news media that have explicitly consented to Google processing and showing their data in its news aggregation service.   Before 1 August 2013, Google's stand was that it automatically presented snippets of German news media in its Google News index, except when confronted with an explicit wish of a media publisher not to be included (for instance, through a...

On 25 June 2013, Advocate General Jääskinen of the Court of Justice of the European Union released his opinion on the much debated 'right to be forgotten' in the case of Google Spain v AEPD (which is the Spanish Data Protection Agency).   No general 'right to be forgotten' In sum, the Advocate General considers that search engine providers are not responsible for personal data appearing on the web pages that they process, and that there is no general 'right to be forgotten' under the EU Data Protection Directive.[1] Therefore, such a 'right to be forgotten' cannot be invoked against search engine providers on the basis of the Data Protection Directive, even when this Directive is...

Belgian courts have quite often been called upon to judge whether a newspaper article or television program breached particular rights of third parties, such as in defamation cases and cases where the privacy of third parties was at stake. As applied to the civil liability of journalists, courts construct the duty of care of journalists to imply that a journalist should pursue the truth, should not use unnecessarily or excessively hurtful words and should respect personal rights such as the right to privacy. As such, the general lines in case law show that civil courts tend to condemn inaccurate or incorrect imputations where there is an obvious lack of evidence; unnecessarily or...

In an attempt to limit election expenses, and fearing the impact of radio and television on voters, legislation was adopted at the federal level to ban political party advertising on radio and television and partly on the internet (this ban does not apply to the written press). However, when the Communities of Belgium (the Flemish Community and the French Community) started to enact their own separate rules on political advertising on radio and television, things became messy.   Federal Belgian law on political advertising Federal Belgian law on the limitation of election expenses forbids political advertising during the election periods in audiovisual media, cinema and on the...

Commercial advertising is largely regulated by the Belgian Federal Act on Market Practices and Consumer Protection of 6 April 2010.[1] This Act stipulates that the use of editorial content in the media, for which the advertiser has paid, to advertise a product, when this is not made clear to the consumer, constitutes illegal misleading advertising.[2]  Other legislation and regulation on commercial advertising in the media almost exclusively focuses on the audiovisual media. The FLBA (Flemish Act of 27 March 2009 on radio and television broadcasting) [3] and the FRBA (French-Community Act of 27 February 2003 on audiovisual media services, modified by the Act of 5 February...

The main rules on freedom of expression and information and on press freedom are enshrined in the Belgian Constitution. These articles (Articles 19, 25 and 150) of the Constitution have remained largely unchanged since their first drafting in 1831. This provides for a high degree of stability, but also raises problems with regard to their interpretation in the light of new technologies. Particularly problematic are Articles 25 and 150, which refer literally to the ‘press’ (i.e., ‘the press is free’ [1] and ‘a jury will be installed for press offences’ [2]), and are, at least according to the Belgian Court of Cassation and some of the lower courts, not technology-neutral. The...

Article 25 of the Belgian Constitution does not only stipulate that the press is free and that (prior) censorship is not allowed; it also establishes a system of stepped liability for criminal prosecutions and civil liability.[1] Under this system, in principle only the author of a work, and not its publisher, printer or distributor can be prosecuted in Belgium. Only if the author is not known or not resident in Belgium, will the other players come into the picture (in the order listed above). Sadly, there is no scientific research on the impact of this system of stepped liability on freedom of expression.   Practical implications of 'stepped liability' for journalists in...

Source protection for journalists working in Belgium.  The Act of 7 April 2005 on the Protection of Journalistic Sources protects journalists from investigative measures (such as the interception of communication, surveillance and judicial home search and seizure) if this could breach the secrecy of their sources. Since this Act applies not only to Belgian journalists, but also to the many international journalists based in Brussels or elsewhere in Belgium (who report on bodies such as the EU institutions or NATO), the importance of this Act surpasses the Belgian context.   The 2005 Belgian Act on the Protection of Journalistic Sources The new Act on the Protection of Journalistic...

The general Competition Act of 10 June 2006[1] and relevant EU laws apply to the media sector. Structural media regulations almost exclusively target audiovisual broadcasting. The main broadcasting act for the Flemish Community is the Act of 27 March 2009 on radio and television broadcasting (hereafter ‘FLBA’).[2] The main broadcasting acts for the French Community are the Act of 27 February 2003 on audiovisual media services (as modified by the Act of 5 February 2009; hereafter ‘FRBA’)[3] and the Act of 14 July 1997 on the Belgian radio and television of the French Community (hereafter ‘RTBF Act’).[4]   Newspapers and magazines There are no special rules for newspapers or magazines...