BelgiumFlemish Media Decree, Article 151, accessibility of television programmes for persons with disabilities
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
What it requires
- If you are the public broadcaster of the Flemish Community or a private television broadcaster, make your programmes continuously and increasingly accessible to persons with disabilities by proportionate measures, using subtitling, audio description, sign language and spoken subtitles for persons with a visual or auditory disability (Article 151(1)).
- If you are a regional television broadcaster, make your news bulletins on weekdays from 8 pm accessible to persons with a hearing disability by subtitling (Article 151(2)).
- If you are a private television broadcaster that airs a main news bulletin and holds an average market share of 2%, subtitle that main news bulletin (Article 151(2)).
- Meet the timetable and quotas the Flemish Government sets for other subtitling, audio description, sign language and spoken subtitles (Article 151(3)).
- Send the Flemish Regulator for the Media, each year before 31 March, a report on how you met Article 151(1) to (3) in the previous year, with any action points (Article 151(4)).
- Broadcast emergency information, including announcements in natural disasters, in a way that is accessible to persons with disabilities, as far as reasonably possible (Article 151(6)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
Article 228, point 4, lets the general chamber impose an administrative fine of up to EUR 125,000 on any natural or legal person to whom the Decree applies; the other sanctions include a warning with an order to stop the infringement, an order to broadcast or publish the decision, and suspension or withdrawal of the transmission licence or recognition (Article 228, points 1 to 6).
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 125,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Flemish Regulator for the Media (Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media), whose general chamber imposes the sanctions of Article 228
What it reaches
Instrument type
an act of a legislature
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- is the public broadcaster of the Flemish Community or a private television broadcaster subject to the Flemish Media Decree (Article 151(1))
What this law does
Article 151(1) of the Flemish Media Decree requires the public broadcaster of the Flemish Community and the private television broadcasters to make their programmes continuously and increasingly accessible to persons with disabilities, by proportionate measures. Article 151(1) names subtitling, audio description, sign language and spoken subtitles as the means of making programmes accessible to persons with a visual or auditory disability.
Article 151(2) requires regional television broadcasters to make their news bulletins on weekdays from 8 pm accessible to persons with a hearing disability by subtitling. Article 151(2) requires private television broadcasters that air a main news bulletin and hold an average market share of 2% to subtitle that main news bulletin. Article 151(3) requires the Flemish Government to set a timetable and quotas for other subtitling, audio description, sign language and spoken subtitles.
Article 151(4) requires the public broadcaster and the private television broadcasters to send the Flemish Regulator for the Media each year before 31 March a report on how they met paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 in the previous year. Article 151(6) requires television broadcasters to broadcast emergency information, as far as reasonably possible, including announcements in natural disasters, in a way that is accessible to persons with disabilities.
Article 151(7) has the Flemish Regulator for the Media keep an online contact point, easily accessible to persons with disabilities, that gives information on and receives complaints about Article 151. The consolidated text marks Article 151 as in force from .
Article 228 of the Flemish Media Decree lets the general chamber of the Flemish Regulator for the Media impose on any natural or legal person to whom the Decree applies an administrative fine of up to EUR 125,000 for an infringement of the Decree.
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