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On 19 July 2022, the Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden (Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal) delivered an important judgment, upholding an earlier lower-court judgment on the media standards applicable to news and opinion websites operated by public broadcasters (see IRIS 2021-10/21). Notably, the Court upheld important principles on the freedom of public broadcasters to criticise public figures, and refused to order a rectification against a public broadcaster sought by a public figure over various online articles. The case involved a well-known Dutch activist who campaigned against Covid-19 measures...

On 18 July 2022, the application by a Dutch coalition of ISPs and media organisations to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) seeking annulment of the Council of the European Union’s recent bans on Russia Today and Sputnik (see IRIS 2022-3/6), was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The applicants in the case are three Dutch ISPs - A2B Connect, BIT, and Freedom Internet – and they are supported by the Freedom of Information Coalition, which includes the Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten (Dutch Association of Journalists) and the Persvrijheidsfonds...

On 25 August 2022, the Hof Amsterdam (Amsterdam Court of Appeal) acquitted on appeal two "drill" rappers who had been convicted in 2021 of incitement to violence in relation to a music video. Drill - slang for "shooting music" - is a subgenre of hip-hop that originated in Chicago and is characterised by its focus on anger and violence. It was the first time in the Netherlands that rappers have been prosecuted and convicted purely for violent lyrics. The video for a song called "Intensive Care" had been uploaded to YouTube in July 2020, two months after a five-second...

On 29 June 2022, the State Secretary for Culture and Media (Staatssecretaris Cultuur en Media) and Minister for Justice and Security (Minister van Justitie en Veiligheid) announced a series of new measures to protect press freedom and safety in the Netherlands. The new measures are contained in a Letter to Parliament, and follow the publication of three reports on press freedom and safety of journalists in the Netherlands by Reporters Without Borders, Media Freedom Rapid Response, and the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (College voor de Rechten van de Mens), which are referenced in the Letter. ...

On 18 July 2022, the State Secretary for Culture and Media (Staatssecretaris Cultuur en Media) introduced a new Bill to the Lower House of Parliament (Tweede Kamer), which will amend the Media Act (Mediawet) 2008, and impose an obligation on major streaming platforms to invest in Dutch audiovisual productions. The State Secretary also announced in a Letter to Parliament a series of new measures to strengthen the Dutch audiovisual sector. Crucially, a new Article 3.29e will be inserted into the Media Act, requiring providers of on-demand audiovisual media services to invest in Dutch audiovisual...