Italian news outlets have joined together in initiating a 24-hour content blackout in protest against proposed government legislation.

Google, the internet search provider, has been accused of a lack of transparency by French antitrust regulators and given four months to explain the conditions of its ad service.

Following the government's decision earlier this year to allow product placement on UK television, Ofcom has announced its suggested rules for it, to be incorporated at the end of 2010.

Product placement is to be allowed in films, TV series, entertainment shows and sports programmes, but not in children's or religious programming, news broadcasts or consumer affairs and (UK-produced) current affairs shows.

The Lahore High Court has directed the government to lift its ban on Facebook saying there should be free access to information, provided no one hurt religious sentiments of others, according to a report in Pakistan's Daily Times .

The Competition Commission has announced that it will be sticking with its initial finding, published back in September last year, that ITV remains strong enough in its ability to attract mass audiences that the Contract Rights Renewal mechanism should be retained. Diana Guy, deputy chair of the commission, explained:

""ITV1 remains a 'must have' for certain advertisers and certain types of campaign, so the essential reason for the CRR undertakings remains: to protect advertisers and other commercial broadcasters from the enhanced market position created by the merger of Carlton and Granada."

Not surprisingly, Adam Crozier, recently arrived chief executive of ITV, is less than happy:

"Today's ruling is out of touch and damaging for the interests of creative Britain. UK media is over-regulated and this has to change if we value and want to sustain a vibrant independent broadcasting sector that can rival the BBC and compete on a global stage."

The media regulator has bitten the bullet and announced a review of the TV Airtime Sales Rules, last visited in 2003. The move could mean that the rules forcing ITV, Channel 4 and Five to sell all their ad airtime may be lifted. Ofcom thinks that the market has changed enough since 2003 to warrant a review of the regulations, saying that as they stand they "may no longer be appropriate as a result of significant developments in the TV sector".

The consultation will last 10 weeks, with Ofcom planning to publish its findings in June.

The Saudi Arabian government has outlined plans to curb 'anarchy' in the media by amending its print and copyright laws.

Regulators in both the US and Europe have given the go-ahead for the proposed search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo!. Microsoft is to assume responsibility for search results and ad links on Yahoo!'s web pages by the end of this year. From the perspective of advertisers, this should obviously be good news as it means Google - which has dominated the market up until now - will at least now have a somewhat stronger competitor.

Aiming to tackle the decline in advertising at regional news groups, communications regulator Ofcom has recommended relaxing the rules on the ownership of local media and cross-media ownership.

The rules, still subject to government approval, would allow radio groups to consolidate around a local area, helping independent commercial operators compete with the BBC. With regards to cross-media ownership, regional groups would be able to own a combination of two news mediums in an area.

Ofcom said:

We have found that even though consumers are increasingly using the internet as an alternative source of news, there is still strong reliance on television, newspapers and radio. However, these industries are facing significant economic changes. These are most acute in local media. Some relaxation of the local ownership rules will benefit citizens and consumers by helping to ensure that local content continues to be commercially provided.

The OFT has thrown a spanner in the works by deciding to refer ITV's attempted sale of the Friends Reunited website (at a £145m loss, no less) to the Competition Commission. The most commercially successful aspect of the business is the Genes Reunited genealogy site, and the OFT is concerned that prospective buyer Brightsold already owns two major genealogy sites, Findmypast.com and 1911census.com.