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In a decision of 8 August 2022 (case no. OVG 11 N 64.18), the Berlin-Brandenburg Oberverwaltungsgericht (Higher Administrative Court – OVG) ruled that reasons must be provided for a decision restricting the time a programme could be broadcast on account of youth protection infringements. The dispute followed an objection by the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg media authority – mabb) against the television broadcaster ProSieben. ProSieben appealed to the courts against the objection and won. In the latest decision, the OVG Berlin-Brandenburg upheld the first-instance...

On 7 September 2022 (case nos. 13 B 1911/21, 13 B 1912/21 and 13 B 1913/21), the North-Rhine Westphalia Oberverwaltungsgericht (Higher Administrative Court) prohibited the distribution of pornographic content by two Cypriot website providers. It therefore confirmed first-instance rulings issued by the Verwaltungsgericht Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Administrative Court) on 30 November 2021 (case no. 27 L 1414/20). The importance of protecting minors was the main factor behind the court’s decision. According to the first-instance rulings, the Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen...

In a ruling of 6 January 2022 (case no. 907 Ds 6111 Js 250180/19), the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt am Main District Court) decided that the distribution of videos promoting Nazi ideology and images from the Nazi era via WhatsApp status constituted the punishable offence of incitement of the masses. It fined the defendant EUR 750. In 2019, the accused uploaded to his WhatsApp status a video that could be viewed for a period of 24 hours by anyone who had saved his phone number at the time on a device suitable for installing WhatsApp and had WhatsApp installed on that device. The first...

The German federal government adopted a new digital strategy on 31 August 2022. The strategy is designed to boost the digital transformation in Germany, where many sectors of state government and administration, civil society, industry, education and science are lagging behind with digital technology and hampered by an outdated analogue infrastructure and especially slow data transfer networks. The digital strategy therefore contains objectives and proposals for a “digital awakening” in various policy areas that are divided into three categories: (1) connected society and digital sovereignty,...

On 30 June 2022, the amendments to the Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty, MStV) that were brought in under the Zweite Medienänderungsstaatsvertrag (second state treaty amending the state media treaty, 2. MÄndStV) entered into force following their ratification by the parliaments of the 16 German Länder (federal states). The amendments are mainly designed to implement Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services and further strengthen the provisions of the MStV, aimed at...