Search results : 1348

In a decision of 7 October 2003 the Cologne Oberverwaltungsgericht (Administrative Court of Appeal) dismissed a complaint concerning the transmission of pieces of music by public radio broadcasters. The Court found that artists do not have any basic right to have musical pieces interpreted, composed or arranged by them broadcast on the radio. The plaintiff, who plays light music, had already sent the broadcasting company, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), several long-playing records and compact discs for their review, but none of her music had yet been broadcast. She took legal proceedings against...

In an interlocutory judgment of 13 November 2003 the Berlin Verwaltungsgericht (Administrative Court) held, in proceedings concerning the confiscation of advertising revenue derived from impugned television programmes, that section 63, paragraph 3 of the Medienstaatsvertrag Berlin-Brandenburg (the Berlin-Brandenburg Agreement on the Media ­ MstV) was unconstitutional. The subject of the statement of facts on which the decision was based was a television broadcaster's contributions to a programme in which unannounced visitors rang on people's doorbells at night. The occupiers of the house were...

At its meeting on 6 November 2003, the Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten (Conference of Regional Media Authority Directors - DLM) adopted a structural paper on the distinction between broadcasting and media services. This distinction is relevant under German youth media protection law to the permissibility of the transmission of pornography (see IRIS 2003-10:6). According to the recently published paper, the categorisation of a service as broadcasting does not depend on the electronic means of its transmission. Rather, the determining factor is the relevance of the content to the formation...

On 13 November 2003, the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) passed the amended Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Support Act ­ FFG ) in time for it to enter into force, as planned, on 1 January 2004 (for more details on the Bill, see IRIS 2003-5:14). However, first it was necessary to eliminate certain differences that had emerged immediately prior to the second and third readings in the Bundestag between private and public-service broadcasters concerning the future composition of the Awards Committee of the Filmförderungsanstalt (Film Support Institute - FFA ). According to the final...

By its decision of 17 September 2003 not to rule on a case, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Constitutional Court - BVerfG) ended a legal dispute dating back to 1998 concerning the right of reply to editorial comments published in the press. The dispute concerned a report in the Badische Zeitung, which dealt with the problems faced by a football club set up by Turkish citizens in obtaining access to suitable sports facilities in a particular municipality. A section headed " Tagesspiegel ", which was indisputably classified as an editorial column, contained comments on this situation, to which the...