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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...

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....

In a decision of 11 July 2019, the Midden-Nederland District Court ordered broadcaster BNNVARA to broadcast a rectification in respect of a #BOOS YouTube episode (“boos” means “angry” in Dutch). The episode contained unproven and incorrect statements about two Dutch real estate entrepreneurs, according to the court. The YouTube series calls upon angry viewers to complain about various topics, such as dismissals, lost packages or expensive mobile phone subscriptions. In each episode the host aims to solve an angry viewer’s problem. #BOOS has won various awards, such as the Best Social Award 2019...

In a decision of 12 July 2019, the Amsterdam District Court prohibited a journalist from publishing certain information in a forthcoming book. According to the court, the argument that the publication of the information could put a source from the Dutch secret service in a life-threatening situation was sufficiently convincing. Investigative journalist Huib Modderkolk works for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. The journalist intended to publish a book entitled “Het is oorlog maar niemand die het ziet” ("It's war, but no one sees it") in September 2019. The journalist sent a manuscript to the...