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The criminal procedure against a famous TV weather presenter accused of rape, which has attracted huge media interest, has also repeatedly occupied Cologne’s civil courts in recent months. The journalist, who has since been acquitted, launched numerous lawsuits - some of which were successful - following media reporting of the case which he believed had infringed his personality rights (see IRIS 2012-3/16 and IRIS 2012-1/19). In three judgments issued on 14 February 2012, the Oberlandesgericht Köln (Cologne Appeal Court - OLG) considered the extent to which questioning of the accused about his...

In a ruling of 9 February 2012, the Oberverwaltungsgericht Münster (Münster Administrative Appeal Court - OVG) overturned the decision of the lower-instance court (see IRIS 2010-2/11) and ruled that Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) is, in principle, obliged to provide information to a journalist under the North Rhine-Westphalia Informationsfreiheitsgesetz (Freedom of Information Act - IFG NRW). The procedure followed a journalist’s request to WDR for information about which companies it cooperated with and how much money was involved. The journalist had requested this information because he suspected...

On 15 February 2012, the Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Bavarian Administrative Court - BayVGH) upheld a complaint by the German publishing house Axel Springer AG against the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian New Media Office - BLM). In 2005, Axel Springer AG planned to take over the media group ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (P7S1) by means of a buy-out (see IRIS 2005-9/13). The Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (Commission on Concentration in the Media - KEK) refused to grant the permission required under media law for the planned takeover on the grounds...

The Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) has partially upheld a complaint about storage and disclosure obligations laid down in telecommunications law. The complainants had mainly argued that Articles 111-113 of the Telekommunikationsgesetz (Telecommunications Act - TKG) infringed their basic rights. Article 111 TKG requires telecommunications service providers to store certain data concerning the connections they provide and the owners of those connections. The BVerfG considered this requirement to be justified on the grounds that it enabled the State authorities to...

On 26 January 2012, the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament - BT), thanks to the votes of the ruling parties, adopted a proposal for a “digitisation offensive for our cultural heritage”. The proposal states, firstly, that the digitisation of cultural assets and knowledge is aimed at their long-term protection and accessibility by the public. The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library - DDB), which is being developed jointly by federal, regional and district public authorities, is particularly designed to make this possible. Through the wide-ranging digitisation of cultural...