Search results : 1348

Two recent court decisions have significantly strengthened the position of German journalists who request information from official bodies and companies. According to a ruling by the Verwaltungsgericht Arnsberg (Arnsberg Administrative Court) of 12 December 2006, the provision on the right of the press to information contained in the Landespressegesetz Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia Press Act) represents a final regulation, which supersedes municipal law provisions on fees and charges (case no. 11 K 2574/06). A local authority decision to charge a journalist EUR 24.60 to answer questions,...

In a judgment of 9 January 2007, the Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Bavarian Administrative Court - VGH) decided that the Bayerische Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst (Bavarian Ministry for Science, Research and Art) could not, as part of its official monitoring activities, instruct the Land media authority, the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian State Central Office for New Media - BLM) to prohibit the broadcasting of unlawful advertising on the channels for which it was responsible. The case concerned the dispute over the admissibility of advertising...

On 15 December 2006, the European Competition Commissioner and the Minister-Presidents of the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria announced, in a joint press statement, that an agreement had been reached in the state aid procedure concerning the financing and remit of public service broadcasting in Germany (see IRIS 1997-9: 13 and IRIS 2006-6: 10). This compromise, which had been announced in summer 2006 but had been called into question several times by the end of the year, should now mark the end of the procedure. Under the agreement, Germany will propose concrete measures, particularly...

The analysis of Klaus Kinski's life justifies the use of the domain that carries his name. This was the verdict of the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH ) in its judgement of 5 October 2006 (case no. I ZR 277/03), in which it rejected the application of Kinski's heirs for the domain "kinski-klaus.de" to be closed down. The respondents were using the domain name "kinski-klaus.de" to advertise a Klaus Kinski exhibition. The heirs of the actor, who died in 1991, claimed that the respondents were infringing their right to exploit the financial value of the dead man's personality rights...

Under Art. 11 para. 4 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement) between the Länder, ARD and ZDF, the public service broadcasters in Germany, are obliged to publish a comprehensive report every two years concerning their activities and fulfilment of their public service remit during the previous period, as well as their future programming priorities (so-called declaration of commitments). These reports serve to set out their public service remit in concrete terms. At the end of each two-year period, the internal supervisory bodies of the broadcasting corporations examine...