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The right of journalists to refuse to give evidence has been extended by an amendment to the code of criminal procedure. The Bundesrat (Upper House) has followed the Bundestag (Lower House) in accepting a compromise proposed by the mediation committee of the two houses of parliament. Under the amendment, journalists' own research will be subject to the law on the right to silence and will therefore be exempt from confiscation. Under previous legislation, this only applied to material received by journalists from third parties. Initially, exceptions to this new law would only have been granted...

The Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) has again ruled on the admissibility of so-called "shock advertising" under competition law. In its judgment of 6 December 2001, it prevented the defendant, a press firm, from printing an advertisement for the Benetton company, depicting a person labelled as "HIV Positive", on the grounds that it was immoral within the meaning of Article 1 of the Gesetz zum Schutz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (Unfair Competition Act - UWG) and was therefore unlawful. The BGH had reached the same verdict in a previous judgment of 6 July 1995 (I ZR 180/94)....

The Landesmedienanstalten (regional media authorities), which monitor private broadcasting in Germany, have recently dealt with two cases concerning the ban on religious and political advertising. On 8 January 2002, the regional media authorities' Gemeinsame Stelle Werbung, Recht, Europa und Verwaltung (Joint Office for Advertising, Law, Europe and Administration) recommended that each of the regional media authorities, which are responsible for monitoring private broadcasters, should ban further broadcasts of advertisements for the book Kraft zum Leben ("Power for Living"), published by the American...

On 20 December 2001, the heads of the German Bundesländer agreed to and signed the proposed amendments contained in the 6th Agreement Amending the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on Broadcasting - RStV). Once they have been adopted by the parliaments of the Länder, the revised versions of the RStV, the Rundfunkfinanzierungs-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on the Funding of Broadcasting - RFinStV) and the Mediendienste-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on Media Services - MDStV) should enter into force on 1 July 2002. The provisions on media concentration contained in the RStV...

At the end of last year, the cable network operator Primacom lost a case at the Leipzig Amtsgericht (District Court - AG) to a client who had complained about a rise in cable connection fees. The company had explained that the rise was necessary because it intended to digitise its cable network and had to cover the cost of that investment. In its ruling, however, the court deemed such a price rise to be illegal. In particular, Primacom could not rely on its general terms and conditions for cable connection, under which appropriate price rises were permitted if Brussels modernisation became technically...