Foreign Policies

EANA: EU Copyright Law Should Incorporate Work of News Agencies

Bratislava, September 22 (TASR) – News agencies should form part of the group of entities creating artistic and journalistic work that the European Commission (EC) wants to protect more resolutely in terms of the illegitimate copying of their work on the internet, said Agence France-Presse (AFP) representative Christophe Watler Petit on Thursday at a conference held by the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) in Bratislava between September 21-23.

Petit noted that the proposed amendment to the EU copyright law submitted by EC president Jean-Claude Juncker has omitted news agencies from the entities that should be awarded protection. “Our agency has already alerted the EC to the fact that the planned proposal only refers to publishers and has forgotten about news agencies,” Petit told TASR.

AFP presented a legal mechanism at the conference that is called ‘droits voisins’ in France. “It’s an extension of the copyright law and allows artists to ban the dissemination of their work if it isn’t financially rewarded. This should include news agencies as well,” explained Petit, adding that this is a way of preventing internet platforms and browsers from illegally disseminating texts, photographs and video recordings produced by news agencies.

Another possible approach is to launch a legislative initiative at the national level that would amend the copyright law in a specific country. “The French Parliament has already received a proposal aimed at entitling news agencies to employ the ‘droits voisins’ mechanism,” said Petit.

EANA is also currently working towards this end. EANA Secretary General Eric Nylen said that the organisation wants to draft an analysis for the EC that would support the extension of its proposal to include news agencies as well.

SPPK: If Farmers Aren't Taken Seriously, They Will Be Seen in Streets More Often

If farmers' demands are not taken seriously, they will be seen in the streets more often, Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber chairman Emil Macho told a news conference held in front of the Parliament's building on Thursday.

PM: Slovakia to Organise Repeated Mass Testing, Two Dozen Districts Exempt

Bratislava, November 2 (TASR) – Slovakia will organise a repeated mass testing for the coronavirus, but districts with positivity rates below 0.7 percent in the testing this past weekend will be exempt from the second round, Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) announced after a meeting of the Central Crisis Management

President Supports Civic Collection to Purchase Ammunition for Ukraine

Bratislava, April 19 (TASR) - I support the 'Ammunition for Ukraine' civic collection, President Zuzana Caputova posted on a social network on Friday, adding that she's also proud that many in Slovakia care about the fate of neighbouring Ukraine. "I support this initiative because it&

Read next