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At the end of April 2007, the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency - BNetzA), the authority responsible for regulating Germany’s communications networks, issued five regulatory orders for broadcasting transmission services. They lay down the regulatory obligations to be imposed on four cable network operators - Kabel Deutschland Vertrieb und Service GmbH & Co. KG, Kabel Baden-Württemberg GmbH & Co. KG, ish NRW GmbH and iesy Hessen GmbH & Co. KG (the latter two now operate under the Unity Media brand) - and T-Systems Business Services GmbH, as an operator of analogue terrestrial transmitters,...

With its decision of 24 April 2007, the European Commission provisionally discontinued the proceedings to examine the compatibility of the description of the remit and funding of public broadcasting in Germany with the terms of Articles 87 ff. and 86 of the EC Treaty (see IRIS 2007-2: 5, IRIS 2006-6: 10, IRIS 2005-4: 4 and IRIS 1997-9: 13). It informed the German authorities, in a letter of the same date, setting out the procedure, the essential arguments concerning the matter examined and its assessment in terms of the law relating to subsidies, as well as the measures considered expedient, and...

At the beginning of March 2007 in a joint meeting with Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner responsible for Media and the Information Society, the heads of government of the German Länder presented the argument that the requirements of broadcasting should be adequately and appropriately taken into account in the reform of the series of directives on electronic communication. Accordingly, the goals of promoting cultural and linguistic diversity as well as pluralism in the media (Art. 8 Para. 1 Subpara. 3 RL 2002/21/EG), hitherto already set out in the framework directive, are to be maintained....

With its rulings of 6 May 2007, the Federal Supreme Court (BGH) once again took a position on the relationship between the privacy of public figures and the freedom of the press. The basis of these rulings arose from several complaints lodged by Princess (Caroline) of Hanover and her husband against several press publishing houses. The defendants had published articles in several of the magazines that they produce, which were illustrated with photographs of the plaintiff. With their complaint the well-known couple sought an injunction on the re-publication of these photos, which had all clearly,...

On 2 February 2007, the Gemeinsame Stelle Digitaler Zugang der Landesmedienanstalten (joint digital access office of the Land media authorities - GSDZ) presented a new draft discussion paper on navigators and electronic programme guides (EPGs) (see IRIS 2007-1: 7). The paper states that there is no competition between the different programme lists currently available, independently of set-top boxes, and that this could lead to discrimination between different services. In order to guarantee freedom of access as required under Art. 53 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement...