Germany

[DE] Media Authority Bans Right-Wing Extremist Programmes

IRIS 2000-8:1/10

Kristina Dahl

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

On 3 July 2000, a user of the Offener Kanal Berlin (Berlin Open Channel) was permanently banned from using the channel by the Media Council of the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority (MABB) after repeatedly using it to disseminate right-wing extremist material.

The person concerned was responsible for Radio Germania, which had broadcast a total of fourteen times on the Offener Kanal Berlin since 1996. He had been banned from the channel for one year in 1997 for disseminating material liable to corrupt young people. The Media Council based its decision to ban the broadcaster permanently on Section 10.1.1 of the OK-Satzung (Regulations on Access to the Offener Kanal Berlin). Under this Article, users can be banned temporarily or permanently from the Offener Kanal Berlin if they breach their legal obligations. The permanent ban resulted from a programme broadcast on 29 October 1999. The Media Council considered the programme to have breached criminal law as well as the programming principles set out in the Medienstaatsvertrag (Agreement between Federal States on Media- MStV), which governed cooperation between Berlin and Brandenburg in the broadcasting field.

The Media Council explained that the programme broadcast on 29 October 1999 contained remarks concerning the late President of the German Central Jewish Council that infringed Section 189 of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code), concerning "disparagement of the memory of deceased persons". Another programme dealing with the events of 9 November 1938 (Kristallnacht) was deemed slanderous under the terms of Section 185 of the Criminal Code. At the same time, the programme breached Section 3.3.1 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Agreement between Federal States on Broadcasting), since it contained material from a book banned in accordance with Section 1 of the Gesetz über die Verbreitung jugendgefährdender Schriften und Medieninhalte (Act on the Dissemination of Literature and Media Content Liable to Corrupt Young People). Moreover, the "constantly aggressive anti-Semitic programming of Radio Germania" breached the programming principles set out in Section 47.1 of the MStV, which applied to Offener Kanal users as well as commercial broadcasters.