Germany

[DE] Youth Protection Commission Publishes Activity Report

IRIS 2005-6:1/23

Ingo Beckendorf

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

Two years after it was set up, the Kommission für Jugendschutz der Landesmedienanstalten (Youth Protection Commission of the regional media authorities - KJM) published an activity report at the beginning of April 2005. Since being established in 2003, the KJM has identified a total of 49 infringements of the provisions of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on youth protection in the media - JMStV) in the programmes of private broadcasters. More than half of the 91 complaints it has dealt with have therefore been upheld. At present, the courts are examining the programme content of music channel MTV in six different cases.

According to its report, the KJM has identified breaches of the JMStV in 79 of the 82 cases it has examined involving multimedia providers. In particular, it has discovered freely accessible pornography and extreme right-wing propaganda on the Internet.

The KJM was established on 2 April 2003. It comprises six directors of the Landesmedienanstalten (regional media authorities), four experts appointed by the Länder and two by the Federal Government. It functions, according to the JMStV, as the central supervisory body for youth protection in private broadcasting and telemedia (Internet). The KJM can impose fines of up to EUR 500,000 for breaches of youth protection rules.

However, the KJM's tasks include not only monitoring and assessing possible infringements of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag, but also dealing with applications from private broadcasters for special dispensations to show films before the prescribed watershed times. In the past two years, private TV broadcasters have made 81 such applications, two-thirds of which have been granted by the KJM.