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In the dispute over the television film commissioned by Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) about the Contergan scandal of the 1950s, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) decided, on 5 September 2007, as the final instance court in the urgent procedure, that the film could be broadcast on television in the autumn. In July 2006, the former manufacturer of Contergan, Grünenthal GmbH, and a lawyer who had represented the interests of victims of the drug Contergan since 1961, had obtained temporary injunctions from the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court - LG) preventing...

In a ruling of 11 September 2007, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) decided that the fixing of broadcasting licence fees by the legislative bodies of the German Bundesländer had infringed the broadcasting freedom of the public service broadcasters under Art. 5.1.2 of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law - GG), and was therefore unconstitutional. In their appeals to the Constitutional Court, the regional broadcasting authorities that make up the ARD, along with ZDF and Deutschlandradio , had argued that the fixing of the licence fees for the period from 2005 to 2008 breached...

If a broadcaster is financed indirectly through licence fees that have to be paid by the owners of receiving devices, it is considered to be "financed by the State" within the meaning of Art. 1(b) para. 2 of Council Directive 92/50/EC of 18 June 1992 relating to the coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts (identical to Art. 1 para. 9 of the follow-up Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts). This...

Deutschlandradio was forced to switch off its digital channel D-Plus following an order by the Rundfunkkommission (Broadcasting Commission) of the Länder on 31 July 2007. D-Plus had been launched on 4 December 2006 in order to supplement the range of DAB digital radio services. Each weekday, the channel repeated four hours of documentary and discussion programmes originally broadcast on radio and television. It was closed down after the Verband Privater Rundfunk und Telemedien e.V. (association of private broadcasting and telemedia providers - VPRT ) lodged a complaint with the Hessische Staatskanzlei...

In a case involving the publication of photographs in the media, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) has again given personality rights priority over the freedom of the press. In a ruling of 19 June 2007, the BGH upheld a complaint by the partner of pop singer Herbert Grönemeyer by dismissing an appeal made against the earlier rulings of lower instance courts. In May 2004, the defendant, a newspaper, had published two pictures of Grönemeyer and his partner. In one picture, Grönemeyer's partner is looking at Grönemeyer in a café. The words "The look of love … Grönemeyer and his...