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On 6 July 2021, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (Hoge Raad) delivered its closely-watched judgment concerning the conviction of Dutch politician Geert Wilders for group insult over comments made during a televised speech and media interview (see IRIS 2017-2/25 and IRIS 2020-9/13). Importantly, the Supreme Court held that Wilders’ conviction for group insult should be upheld, and did not violate the right to freedom of expression. Notably, no sentence had been imposed on Wilders by the lower courts, which the Supreme Court also upheld. The case arose in 2014 in the run-up to the Dutch...

On 1 April 2021, an important new law on online gambling and gambling advertising (Online Gambling Act) (Wet Kansspelen op afstand) came into force, including notable amendments to the Dutch Media Act (Mediawet) (see IRIS 2021-1/24). Due to the difficulty of regulating increasingly popular (illegal) foreign gambling websites, the Dutch parliament enacted a legal response. With this new law, the ban on online gambling and the advertising of gambling has been lifted to improve regulation of the market. With the amendment to the Dutch law on gambling, gambling service providers can now request a permit...

On 27 May 2021, the Netherlands Film Fund (Nederlands Filmfonds), the national agency responsible for supporting film production and film-related activities in the Netherlands, launched an important new scheme of support measures for the film industry in the Netherlands. This followed the announcement by the Dutch government that COVID-19 restrictions on cinemas and movie theatres in the Netherlands would be eased from 5 June 2021, with cultural institutions such as theatres, cinemas and concert halls being allowed to open for a maximum of 50 visitors per room (for previous measures, see IRIS 2020-5/18,...

On 1 May 2021, the Raad voor de Journalistiek (Dutch Press Council) incorporated in its Leidraad (Guidelines) new criteria for assessing complaints from individuals who have unsuccessfully requested media to erase or anonymise their personal data in online publications. The Dutch Press Council also dealt with such requests prior to the introduction of these criteria in the Guidelines, pursuant to the general right to be forgotten (see, for example, IRIS 2018-6/7 and IRIS 2019-10/4), stressing the need for the creation of specific criteria. The Dutch Press Council is an organisation...

On 29 April 2021, the Stichting Reclame Code (Dutch Advertising Code Foundation) announced that Facebook had joined, and officially endorsed the principles and objectives of the Advertising Code Foundation. The Foundation is the self-regulatory body for advertising in the Netherlands (see IRIS 2018-2/27 and IRIS 2013-7/21). Importantly, the Foundation maintains the Nederlandse Reclame Code (Dutch Advertising Code), and consumers, commercial companies and other organisations that have a complaint about an advertisement can submit it to the independent Reclame Code Commissie (Advertising...