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On 25 March 2011, the Verwaltungsgericht des Saarlandes ((Saarland Administrative Court) ruled that broadcasters must normally be allowed to film public city council meetings and may only be prohibited from doing so in exceptional circumstances. The mayor of the City of Saarbrücken had turned down an application by the private broadcaster Funkhaus Saar GmbH to film the city council’s public meetings exclusively for reporting purposes (see IRIS 2010-10/23). She gave as her reason for the ban her fear that the city council’s ability to function properly could be adversely affected if its meetings...

In a judgment of 29 March 2011, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice - BGH) ruled that the German courts had no international jurisdiction in proceedings concerning a violation of personality rights resulting from an internet publication. The plaintiff is a Russian national with residences in Germany and Russia. The defendant, a former fellow pupil of the plaintiff, lives in the United States. After a class reunion in Moscow, at which the two parties were present, the defendant wrote an article in which, among other things, she described the plaintiff’s appearance and lifestyle. The...

In the context of a final appeal of points of law, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice - BGH) recently dealt with the scope of, and limits to, the so-called “media privilege (Medienprivileg), which defines the relationship between data protection and freedom of speech. In its judgment of 1 February 2011, the BGH gave media and press freedom priority over the interests claimed by the plaintiff. The case had been brought by one of the two murderers of the actor Walter Sedlmayr who had been sentenced to life imprisonment (see also IRIS 2010-2/9). He had been released on parole in January...

With the votes of the ruling coalition, the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) adopted the Gesetz zur Regelung von De-Mail-Diensten und zur Änderung weiterer Vorschriften (Act on the regulation of “De-Mail” services and amending other provisions) on 24 February 2011. The creation of the “De-Mail” e-mail service is designed to enable German citizens to send messages via the Internet in a secure, reliable and verifiable way with a single user account. Use of “De-Mail” is optional for citizens. Service providers can charge fees for carrying “De-Mails”, although the cost must be significantly...

On 11 February 2011, the creation of the first “German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund” was announced in Berlin. The parties to the film aid agreement are the two German regional film aid institutions Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg (MBB) and Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (FFHSH), the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the co-production market of the Istanbul International Film Festival (IIFF), “Meetings on the Bridge” (MoB). Under the agreement, joint film productions will be able to access financial support from the early stages of the film-making process. To this end,...