Search results : 1375

In a criminal case involving official secrets, the Landgericht Bremen (District Court - LG) held, in its verdict of 13 August 1999, that the search of a broadcasting organisation`s newsroom together with the seizure of a draft report and the decisions leading thereto were unlawful due to the absence of authority to prosecute on the part of the high regional authorities concerned. The plaintiff is a broadcasting organisation. It reported in a TV magazine on the Bremen City Court of Audit`s budget, which was still confidential at the time of transmission. Information on the budget had until that...

In its judgement of 2 September 1999, the Oberlandsgericht Munich (Regional Court of Appeal - (OLG) fully endorsed the temporary injunction granted by the Landgericht Munich (District Court). The Landgericht (LG) had restrained the publishing house concerned from making use of a portrait of the plaintiff`s mother for commercial purposes, in particular for television advertising, inasmuch as this picture was not reproduced in the editorial section of the same issue of the newspaper being advertised. A general ban on the use of portraits in advertising, for which the plaintiff had petitioned, was...

In its decision of 23 September 1999, the Frankfurt Appeal Court ( Oberlandesgericht - OLG) rejected an appeal lodged by a private commercial television company against a ruling of the Frankfurt District Court ( Landgericht - LG). The District Court had refused to grant a temporary injunction against the sale of the so-called "television fairy" ( Fernsehfee). The defendant sells a television attachment ("television fairy") which automatically switches to a channel without advertisements whenever there is a commercial break. The appellant claimed that its own existence was threatened by this product,...

In a decision announced on 6 September 1999, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (German Constitutional CourtBVerfG) rejected a complaint lodged by the owner of a hotel and conference centre against the duty to pay the television licence fee. The case was taken to the Constitutional Court after the broadcasting company Süddeutscher Rundfunk decided to charge the licence fee for each of the hotel's 114 television sets. The complainant's initial appeal and proceedings brought before the Administrative Court both failed. She claimed that the decision breached the basic right to freedom of information (Article...

The Bayerische Landeszentrale für Neue Medien (Bavarian State Central Office for New Media - BLM) has banned the German sports channel DSF from broadcasting virtual advertising (see also IRIS 1999-4: 14). DSF risks being fined if it repeats the offence. During a football match shown on 10 August 1999, DSF broadcast, for the first time, virtual logos and products in the centre circle of the pitch and either side of each goal. The BLM claims that virtual advertising, i.e. the superimposing of electronic advertisements on a real picture, is incompatible with §7.3 of the current Rundfunkstaatsvertrag...