Brussels, 17/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The national broadcasting regulators of the 25 Member States, the candidate countries and the countries of the EEA (European Economic Area) are taking measures against incitement to hatred in audiovisual programmes. Meeting for the first time in Brussels on Thursday, by initiative of Commissioner Viviane Reding, who is in charge of the Audiovisuals dossier, their chairs learnt lessons from the cases of “Al Manar”, the Lebanese Hezbollah channel, and “Sahar 1”, an Iranian channel, which had been given permission to broadcast in Europe, raising a storm of protest due to the anti-Semitic flavour of their programmes. Their permission to broadcast was eventually rescinded. On Thursday, it was agreed that cooperation and information exchange should be stepped up in order to guarantee the swift and efficient application of European provisions guaranteeing the freedom of the media whilst banning programmes which may contain incitement to racial hatred. This exchange of information will be carried out via points of contact established in each Member State and the regulators must keep each other informed of essential information immediately, such as the granting of licences. A central database and an Internet forum to examine problematic cases may eventually be set up. The Commission has indicated that it will discuss the matter with neighbouring countries and that it will open dialogue with the Mediterranean countries. Viviane Reding points out that rights to freedom of expression and information is enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, but that “respect for human dignity is a European value which is just as important”, and that “we cannot tolerate racist audiovisual content in Europe”. Incitements to hatred for reasons of race, sex, religion or nationality are banned under Community law (article 22a of the Television Without Borders directive). In line with the principle of subsidiarity, it will be up to the Member States to apply this article, and, together with the national authorities, the Member States will be responsible for channels coming under their jurisdiction, including third-country television channels which use a frequency on their territory. The Commission has “always attached great importance to the work of national broadcasting authorities”, Ms Reding comments. Her spokesperson Martin Selmayr states that meetings like that of 17 March will be held regularly. “Whilst respecting subsidiarity, we can agree on common principles and defend shared values”, he said. When asked about other media which may be affected by such measures, the Internet in particular, Mr Selmayr said that the issue was not discussed at the meeting, but Ms Reding was to propose an updated Television Without Borders directive at the end of the year which would take account of all technological advances.