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IRIS 2015-2:1/8 [DE] Federal Supreme Court decides on right to have originally admissible suspicion-based reporting corrected

In a ruling of 18 November 2014 (case no. VI ZR 76/14), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that a person about whom suspicion-based reports are published but who is later found innocent cannot demand that the original reports be corrected. However, he can ask the medium responsible to publish a subsequent report, explaining that the suspicions, which were lawfully published, later turned out to be false. Although the defendant in this case was a newspaper publisher, the ruling also applies to suspicion-based reporting in the audiovisual media sector. The case concerned...

IRIS 2015-1:1/13 [DE] LMK appeals to Constitutional Court against BVerwG decision on “Hasseröder Männercamp”

On 16 October 2014, the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate Media and Communication Office - LMK) announced that it had lodged an appeal with the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - aBVerfG) against the judgment of the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) of 23 July 2014 (case no. 6 C 31.13). The BVerwG had ruled (see IRIS 2014-9/14) that the depiction of a brand of beer at the “Hasseröder Männercamp” before and after the live broadcast of a football match on the Sat.1 television...

IRIS 2015-1:1/12 [DE] Stuttgart district court allows broadcast of illegally-made film recordings under public right to information

In a judgment of 9 October 2014 (case no. 11 O 15/14) that has not yet been published, the Landgericht Stuttgart (Stuttgart District Court - LG Stuttgart) ruled that illegally obtained information may be broadcast on television in accordance with the principle of broadcasting freedom. The case concerned the broadcast on 13 May 2013 of a report on the TV channel “Das Erste” on the theme of “Starvation wages on the production line - how wages are being undermined”, which contained footage filmed secretly at a Daimler car factory. The video footage was recorded on four hidden cameras by a journalist...

IRIS 2015-1:1/11 [DE] Federal Administrative Court grants press the right to names of people involved in court proceedings

If a member of the press requests information about the names of people who participated in a court procedure, such a request should, in principle, be granted, according to a decision issued by the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) on 1 October 2014 (case no. 6 C 35.13). An editor for the magazine “Anwaltsnachrichten Ausländer- und Asylrecht” instigating the proceedings after asking the director of the Amtsgericht Nürtingen (Nürtingen District Court - AG Nürtingen) to send him a copy of a criminal court decision. The AG Nürtingen then sent him a copy of the ruling...

IRIS 2015-1:1/10 [DE] Federal Constitutional Court rejects excessive demands on applicants requesting temporary legal protection in relation to information requests made under freedom of the press rules

Excessive demands may not be made of a journalist who requests temporary legal protection in order to obtain information under German press law, according to a decision issued by the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) on 8 September 2014 (case no. 1 BvR 23/14). The BVerfG based its decision on the fundamental right to effective legal protection, enshrined in Article 19(4) of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law - GG). It ruled that the press can be granted temporary legal protection if the level of public interest and topical relevance of the reporting are high. Limiting temporary...