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On 29 February 2008, the Media Commission of the Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia Regional Media Authority – LfM) reached decisions on new licences to broadcast local and regional television and awarded seven ten-year licences for regional general-interest channels. While taking these decisions, the LfM also adopted a declaration on its strategy for avoiding the formation of local monopolies of influence on opinion-forming. According to section 33(2) of the Landesmediengesetz Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia Regional Media Act), press undertakings...

According to a Federal Constitutional Court judgment of 27 February 2008, computers owned by people who are suspected of committing a criminal offence may only be tapped using spying software if this is necessary for the protection of extremely important general interests. The judgment was in response to a constitutional complaint made by a female journalist who is a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia Regional Association of the Die Linke party and by three lawyers, against provisions of the Verfassungsschutzgesetz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (Constitutional Protection Act of the Land of North...

Following its decision on principle of 13 June 2007 in the case of the novel “Esra” (see IRIS 2007-10: 8), the Federal Constitutional Court again expressed an opinion on 12 December 2008 on the relationship between personality rights and artistic freedom, but this time ruled that personality rights had not been violated in either of the cases concerned. In one case, the complainant had filed a complaint against the performance of the play “Ehrensache” (“A Matter of Honour”, the plot of which is based on the events surrounding the killing of the complainant’s 14-year-old daughter) known as the “Hagen...

The Commission has closed its investigation into the financing of the Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting – VRT). After complaints from several private competitors were received in 2004, a preliminary investigation on behalf of the Commission had found the VRT financing regime to be in breach of EC Treaty state aid rules. These rules declare subsidies liable to distort competition to be incompatible with the common market (Article 87). The VRT’s funding measures pre-existed the entry into force of the EC Treaty and, therefore, amounted to “existing aid”...

Against the background of a procedure for a preliminary ruling requested by the Koblenz District Court (see IRIS 2006-9: 5), the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) has decided that Article 28 of the EC Treaty does not stand in the way of domestic provisions that prohibit the sale and delivery of picture storage media that have not been examined and classified for youth protection purposes by the relevant body. However, this does not apply when the legal procedure for examining, classifying and labelling picture storage media is difficult to access, or is not concluded within a reasonable...