Germany

[DE] Protection of Privacy to Be Strengthened

IRIS 2003-10:1/27

Alexander Scheuer

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

At the end of September, the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) decided to table a bill that will make it a punishable offence to take photographs secretly and without permission. The Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code StGB) will be amended to strengthen the protection of privacy, with a new rule added alongside the existing ban on sound recordings.

People's private lives will be protected against the unauthorised taking or broadcasting of pictures in their homes or similar places that are not directly visible to the public. According to the new para. 201a of the StGB, it will also be an offence to use such pictures or make them accessible to a third party. The public prosecutor will only take action if asked to do so by the victim. It will be interesting to see how this will affect the numerous TV programmes that are based on the "hidden camera" principle. The bill will now be submitted to the Bundestag (lower house) for further discussion.