GDPR and disabling Sitecore Tracker lead to Exception in Sitecore.Analytics.Media.MediaRequestEventHandler.OnMediaRequest

As many Europe-based businesses we had to comply with GDPR legislation, which requires us to not track analytical data from visitors without their consent. When it comes to Sitecore 8.x, this requires to implicitly stop the Sitecore Tracker from initializing unless the corresponding Conseny Cookie has been accepted: