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On 27 August 2019, the German Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) decided that, before classifying a comment as ‘harmful to minors’ on the basis of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on the Protection of Minors in the Media), the author’s fundamental right to freedom of expression must be taken into account. The second chamber of the first senate of the Bundesverfassungsgericht therefore upheld a constitutional complaint lodged by a regional association of the extreme right-wing NPD party. The case concerned the association’s...

The Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecomunications and Information has issued a new classification system for TV programmes with its Decision No. 106/12.6.2019. This decision was the result of the National Council for Radio and Television's (NCRTV) relevant draft proposal, which was submitted to the Ministry, and a public consultation which ended on 30 April. The new system for the classification of TV programmes is based on their content as well as on the age of viewers. In particular, the classification of programmes depends on how likely they are to impair the moral, physical, psychological...

In a ruling of 30 October 2019, the German Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) confirmed the rating of Bushido’s rap album ‘Sonny Black’ as harmful to minors. The Berlin rapper’s album glorified violence and contained highly discriminatory lyrics, according to the court. The decision examined the discretionary powers of the German Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Examination Office for Media Harmful to Minors – BPjM), the regulatory body responsible for classifying data media and telemedia with content harmful...

In a decision taken in summary proceedings on 28 August 2019, the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court) temporarily removed the immediate enforceability of a decision taken by the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media – KJM) denying the suitability of the ‘JusProg’ youth protection system. The court ruled that the KJM’s decision that the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Dienstleister e.V. (FSM) had exceeded its scope of discretionary power by declaring the system suitable was unlawful. On 2 February 2019, the FSM, a recognised...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered a judgment concerning the refusal to grant a film reproduction licence to a Russian film producer on the ground that he was suspected of producing and distributing pornographic films. The ECtHR found that the refusal was a too far-reaching and non-justified restriction on the film producer’s freedom of expression, violating Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The applicant in Pryanishnikov v. Russia is a film producer who owns the copyright to over 1 500 erotic films. The films were approved for public distribution...