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In a decision announced at the end of September, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court BVerfG) decided not to rule on complaints filed by a news agency against injunctions imposed by the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court) and the Hanseatische Oberlandesgericht (Hanseatic Appeal Court). The Constitutional Court can decide not to rule if the complaint does not raise any issues of fundamental constitutional relevance or if it is not indispensable to the plaintiff's ability to assert a fundamental right because it has no chance of being upheld. The Constitutional Court...

At the end of September, the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) decided to table a bill that will make it a punishable offence to take photographs secretly and without permission. The Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code StGB) will be amended to strengthen the protection of privacy, with a new rule added alongside the existing ban on sound recordings. People's private lives will be protected against the unauthorised taking or broadcasting of pictures in their homes or similar places that are not directly visible to the public. According to the new para. 201a of the StGB, it will also be an offence...

In a ruling of 30 September 2003, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) dismissed a complaint by the former Chairman of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG), in which the latter had applied for an injunction against the defendant, a financial magazine, concerning publication of a photomontage. The photomontage showed the plaintiff - who was still Chairman at the time - sitting on a crumbling letter "T" forming part of the DTAG company logo. The figure that was meant to represent the plaintiff was made up of two parts: someone else's body with the plaintiff's head, taken from a photograph. The...

The Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten (Conference of Regional Media Authority Directors - DLM), which comprises representatives of the German Land media authorities responsible for licensing and supervising private broadcasting, is currently discussing the distinction between broadcasting and media services. It has already decided that the concept of broadcasting can no longer be defined according to means of transmission. Technical progress and the resulting convergence of content mean that new definition criteria are needed. Practically speaking, the DLM believes that the distinction...

At its meeting on 10 October 2003, the Television Council of the public service broadcaster ZDF revised ZDF's internal guidelines on the protection of minors. The guidelines firstly contain detailed provisions on the treatment of films that have been rated by a regional ratings authority or a voluntary self-regulatory body. They also ban the transmission of programmes with the same content as certain listed media; the ban also applies if the content has been significantly altered. The guidelines also include rules on exceptions made for specific reasons to the watershed provisions set out in Article...