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The terror recently waged by Hamas against Israel is currently being reflected in German media. Much of the content being distributed in relation to the Middle East conflict violates youth protection law and human dignity, especially when it promotes anti-Semitism or glorifies violence. In Germany, the 14 Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities) are responsible under the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (State Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media – JMStV) for taking action against such content if it is being distributed via privately owned telemedia services. In recent...

At its ninth meeting held on 19 October 2023, the Medienrat (Media Council) of the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian New Media Authority - BLM) adopted new guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism. Designed to protect the credibility of journalism and preserve democratic debate, the guidelines are merely an initial set of recommendations regarding the use of AI systems in journalism. In view of AI’s rapid development, however, they will need to be continuously updated. The authors accept that the use of AI in journalism has some benefits....

On 17 October 2023, the Saarland state parliament adopted a law modernising Saarland media law. Under the reform, a separate law concerning the public service broadcaster Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) was created, with structural changes to its management and internal control. Meanwhile, the provisions relating to the supervisory body, the Landesmedienanstalt Saarland (LMS), were amended, including changes to its governing bodies and director election procedure as well as the broadening of its remit. SR is one of the nine regional public service broadcasters in Germany. Under the amendment,...

On 10 October 2023, the German Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities) published their new transparency-related FAQs for media intermediaries. The FAQs are designed to explain to intermediary services, i.e. mainly search engines and social networks, how they can meet their transparency obligations under the 2020 Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV). They also stress that these rules, which promote media diversity, apply regardless of the entry into force of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which also contains transparency obligations for online platforms and search engines...

In a ruling of 11 October 2023 (case no. 11 A 185/21), the Schleswig-Holsteinische Verwaltungsgericht (Schleswig-Holstein Administrative Court) overturned a decision of the Medienanstalt Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein (Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein media authority – MA HSH) alleging a breach of human dignity and programming guidelines by private broadcaster Sat.1. The MA HSH had ruled that a sequence in the real-life documentary series “Lebensretter hautnah – Wenn jede Sekunde zählt” showing a person who had suffered a serious seizure had been voyeuristic and sensationalist,...