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On 23 May 2012, the Ausschuss für Kultur und Medien (Culture and Media Committee) of the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) voted by a majority to approve a proposal from the coalition parties to increase the provision of barrier-free films. The proposal began by stating that there were around 9.6 million disabled persons living in Germany, who, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, for example, were entitled to participate in artistic and cultural life. For blind and deaf persons, subtitles and audio description helped to provide access to audiovisual...

On 25 June 2012, the Bundestag adopted the Act strengthening the freedom of the press in the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure (PrStG). On 11 May 2012, the German Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) had approved the bill and the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) had previously voted to adopt the bill tabled by the Federal Government without any amendments (see IRIS 2012-5/13 and IRIS 2010-9/22). Under the bill, press freedom will be strengthened through improved protection for journalists and their sources. To this end, Article 353b of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code - StGB;...

On 22 May 2012, the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court - LG) ruled that a blogger was liable for a YouTube video that he had embedded on his website. The video showed a television report about the plaintiff, a doctor, broadcast on the ZDF magazine programme “WISO”. In the report, the doctor was accused of using dubious methods to treat cancer patients. However, the report also included false allegations, for example, it claimed that there was no expert evidence verifying the effectiveness of the plaintiff’s methods, which proved to be untrue. The doctor’s complaint at the time was therefore...

On 28 March 2012, the Kammergericht Berlin (Berlin Supreme Court - KG), in a recently published judgment, confirmed the lower-instance decision of the Landgericht Berlin (Berlin District Court - LG) of 20 May 2011 and ruled that film footage showing the removal of a GDR citizen shot dead at the Berlin Wall was not protected by copyright. The plaintiffs had claimed copyright over the footage and demanded that the defendant be prohibited from reproducing it, making it publicly accessible or broadcasting it on television. The KG Berlin ruled out such a claim under the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright...

On 23 May 2012, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG), in a judgment that has not yet been published in full, ruled that the Bundesländer may, in their media legislation, empower the Landesmedienanstalten (Land media authorities - LMA) to confiscate advertising income received by private TV broadcasters in connection with programmes judged to be illegal. The case concerned clips shown in the “Bimmel-Bingo” section of the programme “TV total” broadcast by the TV company ProSieben, in which a camera crew had rung the doorbells of single-family houses unannounced at...