Germany

[DE] Act Strengthening Press Freedom Adopted

IRIS 2012-7:1/14

Anne Yliniva-Hoffmann

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

On 25 June 2012, the Bundestag adopted the Act strengthening the freedom of the press in the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure (PrStG). On 11 May 2012, the German Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) had approved the bill and the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) had previously voted to adopt the bill tabled by the Federal Government without any amendments (see IRIS 2012-5/13 and IRIS 2010-9/22).

Under the bill, press freedom will be strengthened through improved protection for journalists and their sources. To this end, Article 353b of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code - StGB; breaches of official secrecy and special secrecy obligations) and Article 97(5)(2) of the Strafprozessordnung (Code of Criminal Procedure - StPO; items that cannot be confiscated) are amended in journalists’ favour.