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On 12 July 2024, the Ombudsman of the Dutch Public Broadcasting Foundation (Stichting Nederlandse Publieke Omroep) issued a significant decision on a recent controversial interview conducted by the public broadcaster PowNed. Notably, the Ombudsman held that the interview violated the Journalistic Code of Conduct and could be “damaging to the trust in journalism as a whole, and in public broadcasting in particular”. The case garnered considerable public debate, with the broadcaster admitting it was a “tasteless item” and was “completely disrespectful to women in general”....

On 2 August 2024, the Amsterdam District Court (Rechtbank Amsterdam) delivered a significant judgment on YouTube’s suspension of an online news outlet from YouTube’s monetisation programme, over the channel’s “misleading content”, including on the climate crisis. Notably, the Court rejected the news outlet’s claim that there had been a violation of its right to freedom of expression, and said YouTube had the freedom to create an “advertising-friendly environment”, where certain channels are deemed “unsuitable for advertising” over misleading...

On 5 July 2024, the District Court of Amsterdam (Rechtbank Amsterdam) declared that Twitter International Unlimited Company – the Irish subsidiary of X – violated Articles 12 and 17 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to designate a single point of contact for recipients of its services and silently hiding its user’s account from search suggestions (the practice also known as ‘shadowbanning’). The proceedings were initiated by the Dutch entrepreneur and PhD student Danny Mekić, who has a paid X Premium subscription. In October 2023, he made a post criticising...

On 25 June 2024, an important new mechanism came into effect, allowing journalists to shield personal data contained in the main public registry in the Netherlands from disclosure, where there is a “serious threat” to a journalist. This new mechanism is contained in an Agreement between the Dutch Association of Journalists (Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten) (NVJ) and the public administrative body that operates the public registry of land, including addresses (Dienst voor het Kadaster). The Agreement follows the announcement by the State Secretary for Culture and Media (Staatssecretaris...

On 17 June 2024, the Dutch government announced a significant new package of measures to tackle online disinformation, including a planned new “reporting facility” to allow citizens to report disinformation. The new measures were contained in a Letter to Parliament on behalf of the Ministery for Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations (Ministerie Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties). These measures form part of the main Dutch government’s strategy to combat disinformation, which was announced in December 2022, and involves three different government ministries (see IRIS...