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The Land Presidents have reached agreement with Chancellor Helmut Kohl on the division of responsibilities for legislating on the multi-media. The Länder will conclude a national agreement on media services, which is to take efect on 1 January 1997. This is intended to ensure that economic development of this sector can proceed with the necessary legal and planning security. The agreement will cover a graded regulating system for media services intended for the general public which do not require licensing or prior notification. It will also guarantee free access to the transmission channels....

The complete text of the Inter-State Agreement on Broadcasting, an agreement between the German Länder (federal states) on broadcasting, incorporating the first amendments of 24 June 1991, is now available from the Observatory in five languages: German, English, French, Spanish and Russian. The text is accompanied by an introduction on broadcasting law in Germany.

In IRIS 1996-2, p.14, we reported that there was political agreement on a new Telecommunications Act. On 27 June 1996 the Bundestag adopted the Telecommunications Bill. The Bundesrat was expected to approve it on 5 July. The Act can then be brought into force. The Act comes after some debate, in which it was eventually possible to clarify the questions which still remained and reach an agreement with the somewhat divergent position of the Bundesrat. The Media Committee of the Bundesrat and the Bundestag finally reached agreement on 14 June. The vocal and network monopoly of Deutsche Telekom AG...

The regional broadcasting corporations grouped together in ARD have jointly lodged a complaint against the private television broadcaster PRO SIEBEN with the Regional Court in Stuttgart because the broadcaster regularly contravenes the regulation on advertising time contained in paragraph 4 of the Agreement between the Federal States on broadcasting in united Germany (RfStV) when broadcasting films. Under this provision, films and television films other than series, light entertainment and documentaries, and lasting more than 45 minutes may only be interrupted once in any one complete 45-minute...

In a recently published decision of 8.12.1995, the Court of Appeal in Düsseldorf dismissed the claim of a telephone-sex supplier against Deutsche Telekom concerning the provision of a connection to foreign telecommunications companies using direct dialling. The judgment was made in a case brought by the operator of a so-called "telephone contact service", which supplied two different types of erotic contacts. In both cases a foreign telecommunications company was involved in providing the connection between the client in Germany and the relevant service company. For providing the connection,...