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In a recently published ruling of 13 July 2007 (Az. 1 BvR 1783/05), the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) took a decision on the issue of the limits of artistic freedom, a right guaranteed under the constitution. In the case before the court, a novel (“Esra”) depicted intimate details of a love relationship between the Esra character and the first-person narrator, a writer, together with the associated family surroundings. The sometime girlfriend of the author and her mother have recognised themselves in the characters portrayed in the novel and instituted proceedings against the publication...

The European Commission announced on 17 October 2007, that it has suspended the breach of contract proceedings pending against Germany since April 2006. At issue in these proceedings were the provisions concerning the issue of broadcasting licences outlined in the Schleswig-Holstein broadcasting law and the Lower Saxony media law, according to which the appraisals on the issue of broadcasting licences should additionally include whether the studio production of a programme should be carried out in the actual state concerned, and to what extent the application should contain the requirement to produce,...

In the proceedings relating to the issue referred by the regional court in Koblenz for an intermediary decision (case C-244/06; see IRIS 2006-9: 5), Advocate-General Mengozzi has presented his final proposal. He proposed that the ban, established in §12 para. 3 No. 2 of the German Protection of Young Persons Act, on mail-order sales of video material that has no reference to their having been given clearance for access by young persons under national arrangements, is compatible with community law. The ban, described as “terms of sale” is not a measure of equivalent effect to that under Art. 28...

At their annual general meeting in September 2007, the directors and chairmen of the internal bodies of the broadcasters that make up the ARD agreed to apply for the first time the so-called three-stage approval procedure for new services offered by public broadcasters. This procedure was introduced as part of the agreement reached between the European Commission and Germany, under which the preliminary examination of the compatibility of the remit and funding of public service broadcasting with state aid regulations was provisionally discontinued in April 2007 (see IRIS 2007-6: 3 and IRIS 2007-2:...

In its second report on the implementation of the provisions of the Staatsvertrag über den Schutz der Menschenwürde und den Jugendschutz in Rundfunk und Telemedien (Inter-State Agreement on the protection of human dignity and youth in broadcasting and telemedia - JMStV), the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz der Landesmedienanstalten (Youth Protection Commission of the regional media authorities - KJM) stressed that the protection of young people in the media must be given greater prominence (for the KJM's first report see IRIS 2005-6: 12). It concluded that the ever-increasing quantity of problematic...