Arab Media & Society

The Court shall rule the confiscation of equipment in cases where no license has been issued.

Article 36
Whoever, deliberately or motivated by ill-intent, acts to ruin, destroy, impair, render dysfunctional or damaged any of the broadcasting, re-broadcasting or receiving equipment or to damage, by all means, any technical protection of coded transmission or any decoders designed for Audiovisual broadcasting to allow its being received or sent by someone to another by using any of the broadcasting or transmission devices or causing it, wholly or partly, not to be in any way fit for use, shall be subject to imprisonment for not less than 2 months and not more than 2 years and a fine no less than LE 10,000 and not exceeding LE 50,000 or either penalty.

If any of the actions referred to above has taken place as a result of negligence or lack of precaution, the wrongdoer shall be subject to punishment by a maximum 3-month imprisonment and a fine not less than LE 500 and not exceeding LE 1000, or by either penalty.

Subject to the same punishment shall be whoever acts as a third party to audiovisual programs without obtaining prior license from the Authority in case the given programs are subject of technical protection.

Subject to the same punishment shall be whoever reproduces or records these programs without the consent of the rights owner to serve, by all means, purposes of distribution, sale, lease, communication, or re-broadcasting.

In all cases, the Court, ex-officio, shall mandate the perpetrator to pay the value of materials damaged, destroyed, or ruined or in the amounts worth restoring the materials to itheir original shape, without prejudice to the right to due compensation.  

Article 37
Financial penalty varies according to the multiplicity of recordings, copies of voice recordings or radio programs subject to crime or the number of connections accessed to the public without prior written license from the Broadcasting Authority.

In the event of recurrence, the penalty shall be imprisonment for not less than six months and not more than three years. Minimum and maximum limits of the fine penalty indicated in previous articles, shall be doubled.

Article 38
In all cases, the Court shall rule confiscation of copies subject of crime or incurred in connection with it as well as equipment and tools used in committing the crime.

The conviction shall be published in one or more dailies at the expense of the convict.  

If the culprit is proved guilty, the Court may rule shutting down, for a period not exceeding six months, of the facility the person concerned took advantage of to commit the crime. The shutting down shall be mandatory in case of recurrence regarding crimes cited in the above article.  

Article 39
Any person, who shall assign the license or the permit to a third party without obtaining the approval of the Authority of this waiver, shall be subject to a fine penalty not exceeding the charge determined for either, along with repeal of the license or permit.

Article 40
Any person who is in breach of the fees adopted by the Authority for the given service shall be penalized by a fine 10 times the value of the violation. The latter shall be doubled according to the number of users involved.

Article 41
Any person who discloses or gives statements or information that should not be disclosed or given once related to the activity of the Authority, the licensee or the permittee whether his knowledge thereof was attributed to his work or for any other reason, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one month. 

Article 42