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In mid-February 2025, Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen (ZDF) and the regional public broadcasters that form the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD) announced that they would continue their extensive voluntary film funding programme. Together with the German Filmförderungsanstalt (Film Support Agency – FFA), which is responsible for film funding in Germany, ARD and ZDF have each signed the 15. Film/Fernsehabkommen (15th film/television agreement). According to Article 132 of the Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Support...

In a decision of 18 February 2025, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH), Germany's highest civil court, suspended proceedings concerning the liability of social networks for content that is identical or similar to content that has already been declared illegal by a court. The BGH wants to review the European Court of Justice’s decision in case C-492/23 (Russmedia Digital and Inform Media Press), which also deals with the questions referred for a preliminary ruling as to whether providers of hosting services are obliged to check the legality of content before publishing...

On 13 February 2025, the Verwaltungsgericht Potsdam (Potsdam Administrative Court) rejected an urgent appeal by the Brandenburg division of the Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany – AfD) party against an order by the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg media authority – mabb) prohibiting the unrestricted distribution and making available of one of the party’s election commercials (case no. VG 11 L 74/25). During the Brandenburg state parliament election campaign in September 2024, AfD Brandenburg, assisted by AI, had created an election...

On 5 February 2025, the Verwaltungsgericht Köln (Cologne Administrative Court) ruled in summary proceedings that the leading candidate of the party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – BSW) for the 2025 Bundestag election did not have to be invited to appear on the pre-election debate programme Wahlarena 2025 zur Bundestagswahl broadcast by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD). On the same day, the Verwaltungsgerichtshof Baden-Württemberg (Baden-Württemberg Administrative Court)...

The statute on the regulation of media intermediaries (MI statute), which the state media authorities had initially failed to adopt unanimously due to a drafting error, came into force in Germany on 1 January 2025. The statute regulates in detail the provisions and procedures  laid down in Articles 91 to 95 of the Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV), which govern media intermediaries. In particular, it covers the transparency requirements and rules on discrimination that apply to media intermediaries in Germany. The MStV defines a media intermediary as any telemedia (essentially...