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On 31 December 2020, the District Court of Gelderland delivered a notable judgment on the controversial issue of the criminal liability of journalists who commit (minor) offences as part of their newsgathering activities, and on which the European Court of Human Rights has delivered a series of judgments (see, for example, IRIS 2016-8/1 and IRIS 2016-9/1). In its judgment, the district court convicted a Dutch journalist of purchasing illegal fireworks as part of a news report, and ruled that the right to newsgathering by the media does not mean that journalists do not have to comply with the provisions...

On 30 December 2020, an important judgment on freedom of information (FOI) requests by the media, under the Public Access to Government Information Act (Wet openbaarheid van bestuur), was delivered by the District Court of Midden-Nederland (Rechtbank Midden-Nederland). In allowing a broadcaster’s appeal over a ministry’s refusal to release certain documents relating to a tragic train accident which was subject to widespread public debate, the court held that a large number of documents were “incorrectly refused”, “improperly redacted”, and that the decision was...

On 1 November 2020, new legislation amending the Media Act 2008 (Mediawet 2008) came into effect, transposing the European Union’s revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2018 (AVMS Directive) (see IRIS 2019-1/3) into Dutch law. The revised AVMS Directive was enacted in November 2018, and under Article 2, EU member states were required to incorporate the Directive into national law by 21 September 2020. The revised AVMS Directive contained a range of new rules, including more flexibility in television advertising, increased obligations to promote European works for on-demand services...

On 23 November 2020, the District Court of Midden-Nederland (Rechtbank Midden-Nederland - the Court) annulled the decision of the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens - DDPA) to impose a EUR 575 000 administrative fine on VoetbalTV, a streaming platform for amateur football. Most importantly, the Court found that the DDPA had erred, ruling that the commercial processing of personal data does not categorically exclude a legitimate interest in that processing under the General Data Protection Regulation (Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming - GDPR). Following a regulatory...

On 9 September 2020, the Rechtbank Amsterdam (District Court of Amsterdam) delivered an important judgment involving YouTube videos that were said to contain COVID-19 disinformation. The judgment concerned two videos removed from YouTube in which a doctor was interviewed regarding the controversial, and in the Netherlands unrecognised, drug against COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). In this case, Cafe Weltschmerz - a Dutch citizen journalism platform with a channel on YouTube - initiated legal proceedings against Google Ireland, the company offering YouTube in Europe. A doctor who was interviewed...