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The Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) of the Federal Republic of Germany recently took two decisions in urgent proceedings concerning election campaign ads for the NPD political party, while a third case was decided by the Hessische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Hessian Administrative Court - VGH). A number of public service television and radio broadcasters had refused to broadcast the ads. In two of the three cases, the courts decided that they had been wrong to do so. Under provisions such as Article 11(1) of the ZDF-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on ZDF), political...

At its closed meeting on 22 March 2019, the assembly of the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate Media and Communication Authority - LMK) adopted a position paper on the protection of children and young people in the media. The LMK is the regulatory body for broadcasting and telemedia services in Rhineland-Palatinate. The paper talks in particular about a technical paradigm shift. Despite legislation and the involvement of numerous actors, protection from content and the risks of Internet use is still inadequate. Children and young people are now only...

At its meeting on 11 April 2019, the media council of the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian New Media Authority - BLM) adopted a set of digital ethics guidelines. Its position paper, focusing on the ethical and socio-political aspects of digitisation, is designed to stimulate debate on the consequences of the increasing use of technology in the media and on future approaches to regulation. It forms part of the media council’s efforts to identify how social rules on the use of new technologies can be established. The BLM is the regulatory body for broadcasting and telemedia...

In a decision of 12 February 2019, the Verwaltungsgericht Stuttgart (Stuttgart administrative court) rejected a request from TV broadcaster tm3 for a temporary injunction against the suspension of its broadcasting licence. The court therefore confirmed the immediate enforceability of the decision to withdraw the broadcaster’s licence to organise and distribute the channel, which had been broadcast under the name “Family TV” until January. In July 2017, the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation (LFK), the regulatory body for broadcasting and telemedia services in Baden-Württemberg, had withdrawn tm3’s...

In a ruling of 2 April 2019 (Case no. OVG 11 S 72.18), the Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg Administrative Appeal Court - OVG) decided that live streams available on the website of the Bild newspaper could continue to be broadcast for the time being without the need for a broadcasting licence. It therefore rejected a complaint from the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg media authority - mabb) about a decision taken by the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court - VG) in 2018 (see IRIS 2019-1/13). The case at hand concerned various Internet...