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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...