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On 12 June 2008, the Minister-Presidents of the Länder discussed and drew provisional conclusions concerning the draft 12. Staatsvertrag zur Änderung rundfunkrechtlicher Staatsverträge (12th Inter-State Agreement Amending Inter-State Broadcasting Agreements - RÄStV). Particular attention was paid to the definition of the remit of public service broadcasting, particularly in the field of new media. This was triggered by the need to implement the compromise reached with the European Commission last year as part of the procedure for monitoring state aid to ARD and ZDF (see IRIS 2007-6: 3). There is...

On 12 June 2008, the Minister-Presidents of the Länder held their concluding discussions and signed the 11. Staatsvertrag zur Änderung rundfunkrechtlicher Staatsverträge (11th Inter-State Agreement Amending Inter-State Broadcasting Agreements - RÄStV). The new text mainly serves to incorporate the increase in broadcasting licence fees. It also prolongs the financing structure of the jugendschutz.net institution for a further four years. It is probable that this Inter-State Agreement will no longer include any revised regulations governing the internal income redistribution system within the ARD,...

On 13 June 2008, the Federal Minister for Home Affairs issued a ban on organisations active in Germany, as a result of which a German-based television production company was closed down. The measure was taken in order to prevent the transmission of Kurdish television channel Roj TV in Germany. The broadcaster, licensed in Denmark, is said to be a mouthpiece of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which is banned in Germany, and was accused of propagating violence as a means of achieving independence. It had also encouraged viewers to become so-called guerrilla fighters in the armed conflict with Turkey....

In a ruling of 26 May 2008, the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court – VG) rejected an application by the TV broadcaster ProSieben for interim legal protection against an objection lodged by the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg media authority - mabb) concerning an infomercial. At the start of the broadcast on 30 November 2007, the programme was labelled as a " Dauerwerbesendung " (infomercial) and, during the broadcast, as " Q.-Promotion ". The mabb complained that this breached the programme labelling obligation set out in Art. 7 para. 5 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag...

German courts have recently dealt repeatedly with various aspects of liability in relation to Internet use. For example, according to a ruling of the Landgericht (LG) München I (Munich District Court I) of 19 June 2008, parents are responsible for copyright infringements committed by their children (who are minors) in connection with Internet use if they have failed to properly fulfil their supervisory and educational obligations. A 16-year old girl had uploaded videos consisting of copyright-protected photographs onto two web portals. In the court’s opinion, her parents had failed to meet their...