Search results : 1375

The entry into force on 1 January 1997 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (the Agreement between the Federal States on Broadcasting ­ RstV), in the form of its third amendment, introduced new rules on the protection of diversity of opinion into Germany's broadcasting regulations. Part of this series of standards was a measure to attribute broadcasting time to third parties as a means of ensuring diversity (see IRIS 1997-2: 13 and IRIS 1997-3: 13). These so-called third parties are required to be totally independent of the main programme organiser. Under section 31, paragraphs 1 and 3 of the RstV, the...

The relevant regional regulatory body, the Landesmedienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg Regional Media Authority ­ MABB), must make a fresh decision over the allocation of broadcasting time to the Berlin TV company, Fernsehen aus Berlin GmbH (FAB). In a judgment of 13 November 2003 the Berlin Verwaltungsgericht (Administrative Court ­ VG) set aside the MABB 's initial decision and instructed it to make a fresh decision, in which it was to take account of the Administrative Court's interpretation of the law. The FAB had applied for a seven-year extension of its broadcasting permit...

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...