Law 4779/2021, Article 10: accessibility of audiovisual media services for persons with disabilities, with the ESR's sanctioning power

Article 10(1) of Law 4779/2021 obliges media service providers to increase continuously and progressively the accessibility of their services to persons with disabilities, achieved in particular through subtitling of programmes, sign language, audio description and spoken subtitling.

Article 2(1) of Law 4779/2021 defines a media service provider as the natural or legal person that has editorial responsibility for the choice of the audiovisual content of the service and determines how it is organised. Article 2(1) of Law 4779/2021 defines a television broadcast as a linear audiovisual media service that the provider supplies for simultaneous viewing of programmes on the basis of a programme schedule.

Article 2(1) of Law 4779/2021 defines an on-demand audiovisual media service as the non-linear service that the provider supplies for viewing programmes at a moment the user chooses, from a catalogue of programmes.

Article 10(2) of Law 4779/2021 requires media service providers to submit to the National Council for Radio and Television (ESR) and to the Media Supervision Directorate of the General Secretariat for Communication and Information, within the first two months of each year, a report on the application of the measures of Article 10(1).

Article 10(3) of Law 4779/2021 requires media service providers to develop plans for the gradual increase of the accessibility of their services to persons with disabilities and to notify them to the ESR and to the Media Supervision Directorate.

Article 10(4) of Law 4779/2021 requires the ESR, in cooperation with other competent authorities or bodies, to give persons with disabilities information on accessibility in the programmes of media service providers and the possibility of filing accessibility complaints through a dedicated website.

Article 10(5) of Law 4779/2021 requires media service providers to give emergency information, including public information and announcements in cases of natural disasters, in a manner accessible and understandable to persons with disabilities. Article 36(1) of Law 4779/2021 provides that the ESR imposes on a media service provider that breaches Article 10(1), (2) or (5) the sanctions that Law 2644/1998 and Law 2328/1995 provide.

Article 26(5) of Law 4994/2022 provides that for a breach of the Act's obligations by media service providers the ESR imposes on the provider the sanctions of Article 36(3) of Law 4779/2021 or of Article 4 of Law 2328/1995.

Article 36(3) of Law 4779/2021 lists a recommendation to comply, a fine from EUR 1,000 to EUR 500,000, temporary suspension of operation from one day to three months and permanent suspension of operation as the sanctions for a video-sharing platform established in Greece that breaches Article 32, chosen according to the gravity of the breach, the degree of fault, the provider's financial situation and recidivism. Article 10 of Law 4779/2021 transposes Article 7 of Directive 2010/13/EU, as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/1808.