Television broadcasting activities. 'Television without frontiers'

Compromise was reached on three major points in Parliament's recommendation (report by Mr Gérardo GALEOTE QUECEDO, PPE, ES, and Mr Karsten HOPPENSTEDT, PPE, D) - encoded retransmissions of major national or international events, - the definition of 'small independent producers' and - filtering out violence. The principle of mutual recognition was retained for the retransmissions of major events. It is the responsibility of each Member State to draw up 'in due course' a national list of 'national or other events' so that TV channels in that country do not transmit such events in coded form only. It also has to decide whether such events should be broadcast live or whether they should be prerecorded, wholly or partially, for objective reasons of general interest. The principle of drawing up a definition of independent producers has been retained, based on certain criteria such as ownership of the production company, quantity of programmes supplied to the same broadcasting organization etc. The idea of a study to be carried out within one year after publication of the directive, on the introduction of a violence filter has also been retained. The Commission has issued a declaration undertaking to take into account the various points rescued by Parliament (creation of a classification system, encouragement of family television policies etc.). �