Germany

[DE] Broadcasting Ban for Contergan Film

IRIS 2006-8:1/16

Jacqueline Krohn

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

On 28 July 2006, the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court - LG Hamburg ) prohibited the broadcast by Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) of the current version of a TV film about the Contergan scandal. In doing so, the court confirmed temporary injunctions that had previously been granted. At the end of the 1950s, thousands of women had given birth to deformed babies after taking the drug Contergan . The manufacturer of Contergan , Grünenthal GmbH , and a lawyer, whose life story is depicted in the film, had instigated proceedings against WDR and the production company Zeitsprung . The press chamber of the court largely upheld their complaint.

The legal dispute mainly concerned whether the TV film constituted a documentary or pure fiction. WDR and Zeitsprung had hoped to use the film to depict the Contergan scandal, a highly controversial chapter of German history, in artistic form. Grünenthal claimed that the film contained numerous key scenes which seriously distorted the events surrounding the scandal and twisted historical facts. The LG Hamburg agreed with the complainant, whose personality rights, it ruled, took priority over artistic freedom. The documentary nature of the film would clearly be predominant in the minds of the viewers. There was no sufficient attempt to make the events, which were based on reality, appear fictional. The public was therefore unable to distinguish between what was true and what was fabricated. On these grounds, WDR and the production company were prohibited from broadcasting 13 false representations contained in the film, or otherwise face a fine of up to EUR 250,000.

WDR and the production company announced that they would appeal against the decision.