Search results : 1372

In a decision of 31 July 2014 (case no. 1 BvR 1858/14), the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court – BVerfG) partially upheld an application for a temporary injunction against a procedural order restricting press reporting on a criminal procedure before the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court – LG). In the criminal procedure, which concerned a three-year old girl who had died from internal injuries, the LG Hamburg had issued several orders. Firstly, audio, photographic, and video recordings in the courtroom could only be made by a pool of two camera teams (one private and...

In a judgment of 10 July 2014, the European Court found that the publication by the daily newspaper Bild of suspicions concerning the former German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, was covered by journalistic freedom. In Strasbourg, the publisher of Bild, Axel Springer AG, had lodged a complaint arguing that the German courts had interfered with the right to freedom of expression and critical press reporting in a way that violated Article 10 of the Convention.  An article in Bild had repeated a series of suspicions and doubts on the part of Mr Thiele – the deputy president of the...

In a decision of 8 July 2014 that is yet to be published in full (case no. 7 A 4679/12), the Verwaltungsgericht Hannover (Hanover Administrative Court - VG) ruled that an episode of the RTL television series “Die Super Nanny” broadcast in 2011 breached human dignity. Both the programme itself and trailers for the series repeatedly showed several scenes of brutality in which a single mother shouted at, threatened and hit her children a number of times. In the programme, the “Super Nanny” persuaded the mother to stop treating her children with such extreme violence and to attend a suitable course...

In a decision taken on 11 July 2014 (case no. 10 ME 99/13), the Niedersächsische Oberverwaltungsgericht (Lower Saxony Administrative Court of Appeal - OVG) quashed an order that a licence granted to dctp to broadcast a third-party window as part of the RTL programme should take immediate effect. On account of its high viewing figures, RTL is obliged to make airtime available to independent third parties in the form of a window programme. For a five-year period beginning in July 2013, the Niedersächsische Landesmedienanstalt (Lower Saxony media authority - NLM) therefore invited tenders for a total...

In a ruling of 8 July 2014 (case no. Lv 5/14), the Verfassungsgerichtshof des Saarlandes (Saarland Constitutional Court - SVerfGH) decided that a Bundesland’s education minister is allowed to describe supporters of a legitimate, extreme right-wing German political party as “the brown mob” and “modern Nazis” at a school anti-racism event. Even though the remark in the case at hand was made at an event, the court’s decision is also relevant to comments made by politicians about parties and their members on television or in other audiovisual media. Saarland’s education minister had attended an event...