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Fédération Européenne des Réalisateurs de l'Audiovisuel Federation of European Film Directors La FERA défend le droit à la création
de chaque peuple Charte de Delphes - 1988 |
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Anciens Présidents Peter FLEISCHMANN Ettore SCOLA Krzysztof ZANUSSI Juan Antonio BARDEM Robert ENRICO John BOORMAN Francesco MASELLI Manuel GUTIERREZ ARAGON
Présidente Liv ULLMANN
Vice-Présidents Anne THÉRON Massimo SANI Anders REFN
Senior Vice-Président Peter CARPENTIER
Secrétaire général Joao CORREA |
PRESS RELEASE January 10 – 2005
FERA thanks and congratulates the Directors Vilgot Sjöman and Claes Eriksson for the Swedish Court decision stating that TV4 (most important private broadcaster in Sweden) infringed their Moral Rights to their films (‘Alfred’ and ‘Hajen som visste för mycket’) by inserting advertisement interruptions in their films FERA always opposed to the 11th article of the EU TV Directive because the EU regulation is in conflict with the moral rights granted to authors in the Bern Convention, which assures that the author shall have the right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to the work, which would be prejudicial to his honour or reputation. It is quite obvious that breaks and interruptions in a film are such mutilations of a work which constitutes a violation of the moral rights of filmmakers. Until 1 April 2002, the Swedish Radio and Television Act totally prohibited commercial breaks during the broadcast of films or programmes with respect to the audience and to the moral rights of filmmakers. Despite strong protests from the organisations of Swedish authors, performers and film producers as well as individual authors and performers, the Swedish parliament has now implemented article 11.3 of the TV-Directive, which allows advertisement interruptions in films within certain intervals, in the Swedish Radio and Television Act. The reason for this change is partly the stiff competition from satellite transmissions to Sweden from Swedish broadcasters domiciled in other countries within the EU, who are not bound by Swedish law, and partly the way that the Swedish commercial TV company TV4 skirted the prohibition by interrupting films or programmes with news summaries and other short programmes surrounded by advertisements. Since the amendments were introduced in the Swedish Radio and Television Act TV4 has systematically used the new possibility to mutilate films by interrupting them with advertisements. Unfortunately, few authors or performers take legal action against broadcasters – not because they do not care, but because a lawsuit is always inconvenient and can also be very costly in terms of time and money. However two Swedish filmmakers, Mr Vilgot Sjöman, and Mr Claes Eriksson proved that TV4 has infringed their moral rights to their films (‘Alfred’ and ‘Hajen som visste för mycket’) by inserting advertisement interruptions in their films. At the ceremony of the awards of the Swedish Film Academy the internationally known film director Ingmar Bergman publicly praised the efforts of Vilgot Sjöman to stop advertising interruptions of films when exhibited on Swedish TV4. As all the FERA members know article 11.1 in the current EU TV-Directive states as a principle rule that advertisements shall be inserted between programmes. However the effect of this very clear regulation is undermined by the following paragraph, which says that under certain conditions advertisement interruptions are permitted during programmes in such a way that the integrity and the value of the programme and the rights of the rights holders are not prejudiced. The condition concerning commercial breaks in feature films or films made for television is that advertisements must be broadcast within certain intervals (FERA was always against this article). In the European Union, film producers and commercial TV channels often claim that film directors have agreed to allow commercial breaks when their films are broadcast. But this is a false claim, since it goes without saying that the companies’ great economic power puts them in a position where they can force directors to make such concessions. In FERA's opinion, both European national legislation and EU regulation should stipulate that films must be broadcast in the version that the authors have approved. Now that the TV-Directive is being revised, it is high time to protect the moral rights of the creative people involved in the making of films without whose work there would be little to broadcast in Europe. Adding a clear stipulation that advertisements and other programmes may not be inserted into any feature film, documentary or film made for television is of greatest importance for television viewers all over Europe as well as for authors, performers and other artists. An added advantage is that such a stipulation would render pointless the argument about reducing competition. To conclude, FERA hopes to convince the EU-Commission that moral rights must be better protected in the future TV-Directive. The audiovisual directors shall have the right to have their work exhibited in the form in which it was originally created.
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