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On 28 April 2025, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media – KJM) published its 11th activity report, which documents a significant increase in the number of cases relating to the protection of children and young people from harmful content over the past two years. Hate, incitement and disinformation are described as the dominant themes, particularly in online media. Shortly afterwards, on 13 May 2025, the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia (voluntary self-monitoring body for multimedia service providers – FSM) also published...

In two decisions dated 24 April 2025, the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court) (case nos. VG 32 L 25/25 and VG 32 L 26/25) rejected urgent applications by Cyprus-based Aylo Freesites Ltd for interim legal protection against blocking orders relating to its German-language telemedia services ‘Pornhub’ and ‘Youporn’. The blocking orders were based on a decision taken by the state media authorities’ Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media – KJM) in a longstanding investigation that has also resulted...

In its decision of 14 April 2025, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court – BVerwG) rejected an application from a newspaper publisher (the applicant) for information concerning the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic to be disclosed by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service – BND). By way of a temporary injunction, the applicant had submitted a list of questions to the BND, asking when the BND had informed the Federal Chancellery of its findings on the origin of the virus, as well as whether and, if so, when this information had been classified as...

At the beginning of April, the CDU, CSU and SPD parties signed a coalition agreement that will form the basis of their government in the forthcoming 21st legislative period of the German Bundestag. The coalition partners of the new federal government believe that independent and diverse media ensure free public debate. Within the dual media system, they favour both pluralistic public service broadcasting and fair regulatory and refinancing conditions for private media. They are reluctant to impose additional advertising restrictions and are examining the introduction of a levy for online platforms...

On 20 March 2025, the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court – OLG) ruled in summary proceedings (case no. 16 U 42/24) that suspicion-based reporting is inadmissible unless the person accused of a criminal offence is given an opportunity to comment on the basis and context of the intended report. Suspicion-based reporting is a form of journalistic reporting in which a possible criminal offence is reported on and the name of the alleged offender is mentioned. Although the scope and limitations of such reporting are not clearly defined, the courts have...