WIPO SCCR S2- IFJ Statement on the Proposal for a WIPO Broadcasting Treaty, June 2007

The International Federation of Journalists represents 500 000 journalists in the world. It promotes strong authors’ rights protection for journalists and their need to be recognised as authors of the work they create irrespective of the media they work for.

The IFJ fully supports the non-paper’s endeavour to led full recognition to the signal-based approach. We believe that the scope of the future treaty should only extend to the protection of the broadcasting signal. To grant rights going beyond this protection would compromise the rights of other rightholders.

In particular, the IFJ welcomes the exclusion of post-fixation rights from the treaty. Such rights would clearly cover the broadcast content and would challenge the rights of journalists over this content.

We also support the exclusion of webcasting from the scope of the treaty.

However, the IFJ believes that some further modifications of the draft proposals are required to ensure that the balance is set right between broadcasters and other rights holders. In particular, a right to prohibit would be sufficient to fight against piracy of the signal, and accession to the treaty should be subject to membership to the WCT and WPPT.

Finally, the IFJ have some strong reservations regarding TPMs. TPMs can help fighting piracy of the broadcasting signal but can also conflict with exception for quotations and reporting on current events. Moreover, their use must be agreed by all rightholders and should not be subject to the sole authorization of broadcasters.


19 June 2007