Search results : 477

In its judgment of 17 December 2019, the Court of Appeal of Arnhem-Leeuwarden (Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden) delivered an important judgment on #MeToo reporting in the Netherlands, ruling that Dutch news outlet NRC could name an individual in an investigative report on that individual’s alleged “sexually transgressive behaviour” (seksueel grensoverschrijdend gedrag). The Court of Appeal held that given the circumstances in question, the news outlet’s freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), outweighed the individual’s...

On 5 November 2019, the Court of Appeal of Arnhem-Leeuwarden upheld a lower court judgment, finding that an Internet service provider (ISP) was not required to provide customer data associated with certain IP addresses that were identified as being used for potential copyright infringement.   The case involved Dutch Film Works (DFW), which is the largest independent film distributor in the Netherlands in the field of cinema, home entertainment, video-on-demand and television. It is also a co-distributor of the US film The Hitman's Bodyguard (the “film”), and is entitled...

On 25 October 2019, the district court of Rotterdam ordered the release from detention of a journalist working for the Dutch public broadcaster NOS who had been detained for over 30 hours for the protection of journalistic sources in a criminal case. His detention was met with significant public debate and protest, with the editor-in-chief of NOS stating that, “the right to the protection of journalistic sources is crucial for the journalist’s role as the watchdog of a democratic society.” Hundreds of journalists had also protested outside the court. In 2014, a man was shot...

On 10 September 2019, the Amsterdam District Court delivered a notable judgment on the broadcasting of an investigative documentary concerning the death of a young man after a police shooting, despite objections of the deceased’s family to the broadcast. The Court rejected an application for the broadcast to be prohibited, holding that the broadcast’s interference with the family’s private life – in the light of various considerations, including the fact that the deceased’s mother had not given permission for the use of certain information – did not outweigh the public interest in the documentary...

On 2 September 2019, the Court of North Holland found an anti-racism activist guilty of publishing threatening posts on Facebook in the form of altered images targeting a well-known actor during Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas), an annual Dutch holiday. The case arose during October 2018, when the activist posted a threat of aggravated assault by means of “sharing” two posts on his Facebook profile. The first photo depicted the accused wearing a hat reading “Sinterklaas Sniper”. The second post was a photo taken of J.F. Kennedy moments before his assassination, photo-shopped to replace the former U.S....