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On 3 July 2013, the Prime Minister of “Rheinland-Pfalz” and the Prime Minister of “Baden-Württemberg“ signed the New State Contract for the public broadcasting system in both countries, the Südwestrundfunk (SWR). The New State Treaty for the SWR came into force on 1 January 2014 and replaced the old State Treaty of 31 May 1997. The new SWR-State-Treaty specifies the programme mandate of the public broadcasting including the online activities of the SWR and directed the programme to a younger audience. By creating more flexible structures, the new state contract wants to allow the SWR the establishment...

In a decision of 27 May 2013, which is yet to be published, the Verwaltungsgericht Schleswig (Schleswig Administrative Court - VG) rejected complaints about the decision of ProSiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland GmbH to change licences for its channel Sat.1. The switch was made due to disagreements between ProSiebenSat.1 and its subsidiary, Sat.1 SatellitenFernsehen GmbH (Sat.1), and the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate regional media and communication authority - LMK) concerning the allocation of third-party transmission time and the broadcast of regional...

On 10 May 2013, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (association of German public service broadcasters - ARD) and the Allianz Deutscher Produzenten - Film & Fernsehen e.V. (alliance of German film and television producers - Produzentenallianz) agreed a set of cooperation guidelines for fully financed commissioned documentary productions (see IRIS 2010-2/14; IRIS 2010-10/25). Both parties believe that the guidelines considerably improve contractual conditions for producers. The guidelines are based on the agreement concluded between...

The Culture Committee of the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) adopted an amendment to the Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Support Act - FFG) at its final meeting on 15 May 2013. Under the main provision of the amendment, the Filmförderungsanstalt (Film Support Office - FFA) will continue to collect film contributions after the current arrangement expires on 31 December 2013. The amendment also contains a number of changes to the film support criteria. The collection of film contributions by the FFA remains indispensable, according to the explanatory memorandum of the bill (see IRIS 2010-8/22,...

In an as yet unpublished decision of 14 May 2013, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) ruled on the admissibility of Google “autocomplete” suggestions that breach personality rights. Google uses a so-called “autocomplete” function, which automatically shows users various suggested search terms in the form of word combinations as they enter search items in its search engine. In the case at hand, a businessman applied for an injunction to stop Google showing his full name as part of the “autocomplete” function with the words “Scientology” and “Betrug” (the German word for “fraud”)...