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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...

At its meeting on 24 April 2012, the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Licensing and Monitoring Commission - ZAK) decided that the broadcast of advertising for sports betting provider bwin by pay-TV broadcaster Sky breached current law. It banned further broadcasts of all forms of television advertising for bwin and ordered the immediate execution of this measure. Sky had broadcast numerous sponsor references and split-screen advertisements for bwin during the programme “Live Fußball: Bundesliga/Samstags-Konferenz” on 28 January 2012. The Commission deemed that this breached the ban on television...