Search results : 487

On 15 March 2016, the Senate passed the new amendments to the Mediawet (Media Act) in order to reform the regional broadcasting system. The State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science, Sander Dekker, wanted to transfer the administrative and financial responsibility of the regional broadcasters to the central government, realise a reduction of EUR 17 million in the budget of the regional broadcasters, and set up a single unified organisation responsible for public broadcasting at a regional level. Additional reforms regarding the national broadcaster are contained in an additional bill,...

On 9 March 2016, a 37-year-old man was acquitted of insulting Muslims by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal. The man made his statements in a documentary about the Dutch politician Geert Wilders from the Partij voor de Vrijheid - (Party for Freedom, PVV) in 2010. The makers of the documentary wanted to investigate the motives of Geert Wilders and his followers. One of the interviewees was the defendant, who was presented as a follower of Geert Wilders. In the interview he spoke about Arabs as “fervent ass crashers” (fervent kontenbonkers), who also “fuck young boys”. According to him this is “normal...

On 14 March 2016, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (Dutch data protection authority, AP) declared that a plan to process the personal data of internet users for anti-piracy investigations is lawful. Stichting BREIN, a Dutch anti-piracy organisation, intends to collect and further process the IP addresses and user names of Dutch citizens engaging in file sharing via ‘BitTorrent’ networks. The purpose of the data processing is to investigate the involvement of these people in the unauthorised, large-scale uploading and downloading of copyright-protected works, such as films and music. The organisation...

The Dutch TV show Onopgeloste zaken investigates unsolved cases, which usually leads to a confrontation with a person on camera. In this particular case, a person confronted about possible wrongdoing considered the confrontation to be a violation of his privacy and brought proceedings against the TV show. The claimant was approached by a family, asking him to store their furniture while they were renovating their house. Upon completion of the renovation they wanted their furniture back, but it seemed that the claimant’s company could not be reached by phone or mail. Thereupon the family approached...

On 1 February 2016, the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam sentenced local Dutch politician Delano Felter to pay a fine for making insulting and discriminatory remarks against homosexuals during a TV interview in 2010. The same Court acquitted Felter in 2013, but was ordered to revise the ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court in 2014. The ruling could prove important for future prosecutions for insulting and discriminatory remarks against a specific group (for previous prosecutions, see IRIS 2009-3/103). In February 2010, Felter was running for the local elections in Amsterdam as leader of a small local...