Search results : 501

In December 2017, the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeals (Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden) ruled on the question of whether broadcaster AVROTROS acted unlawfully towards a person by giving a distorted picture of a high-profile neighbours’ dispute in an episode of the television programme EenVandaag. The Court considered whether the respondent’s right to respect for private and family life, including his honour and good name, as guaranteed under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), outweighed the right to freedom of expression of AVROTROS under Article 10 ECHR. The case followed...

On 25 October 2017, the highest Dutch administrative court, Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State (Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State) (Council of State) overruled a decision of the Midden-Nederland Court concerning a request for public access to government information about the air crash of Flight MH17. Both parties - the Minister of Justice and Security and the Dutch media organisations (broadcasters ‘NOS’ and RTL Nieuws, and the newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’) - made an appeal in this case that focuses on the decisions about public access to reports by the Ministerial...

On 22 September 2017, The Hague District Court ordered a preliminary injunction against internet services providers (ISPs) Ziggo and XS4AALL to temporarily block access to The Pirate Bay until the Dutch Supreme Court had issued a judgment in the main proceedings. This case has to be seen in light of the main proceedings before the Dutch Supreme Court, between the applicant BREIN, a foundation protecting the rights and interests of Dutch copyright holders, and Ziggo and XS4ALL as defendants, both of them ISPs who give their end-users access to The Pirate Bay. The main proceedings were suspended...

On 26 September 2017, the District Court of Amsterdam dismissed a complaint against a well-known Dutch crime reporter for allegedly unlawful statements made on the television programme RTL Boulevard. The lawsuit was also directed at the producer of the programme, Fremantlemedia Netherlands BV. The claimant in the case writes and publishes information about crimes in several media outlets. One of the crimes he commented on was the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1999. The claimant had an alternative reading of the case, and amongst other things, argued that the person convicted of these...

On 29 September 2017, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the claim of the telecom company Pretium to oblige the broadcaster Tros to hand over unedited hidden camera footage would be an impermissible restriction on the right to freedom of speech (see IRIS 2015-7/23). The decision relates to the question of the extent to which hidden camera footage falls within the scope of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), and whether an order to hand over audiovisual material may be rejected if the desired evidence can be obtained by other means. In 2008, Tros aired an episode of the...