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Two self-regulatory bodies, the Raad voor de Journalistiek (Flemish Council for Journalism) and the Jury voor Ethische Praktijken inzake reclame (Belgian Jury for Ethical Practices in Advertising) have reported on their 2015 activities and functioning. The Flemish Council for Journalism opened 49 new files; 48 based on complaints (a 22% decrese from 2014), and one based on a request for advice. 23 complaints concerned daily newspapers, seven were aimed at weekly papers and magazines, seven involved television, two radio, and 19 complaints also related to websites. The latter is an increase from...

On 29 April 2016, the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal against a judgment of the Court of Appeal of Liège (25 September 2014) which found that a doctor could request the anonymisation of an article in the online archive of a newspaper. The article concerned a fatal car accident which the doctor had caused 20 years ago while inebriated (for a Dutch case on online news archives, see IRIS 2015-6/27). The Court of Cassation confirmed the reasoning that the “digital” right to be forgotten (le droit à l’oubli numérique) is an intrinsic component of the right to privacy. In its assessment of the...

In a judgment of 2 June 2016 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Ukraine had violated the right to freedom of expression by convicting a media company of the defamation of a political public figure. Although the impugned article had a highly sarcastic and offensive tone, the Court confirmed that journalistic freedom covers possible recourse to a degree of exaggeration, or even provocation, especially in the context of a public debate and discussions in the media on important features of political life. The case concerns defamation proceedings brought in 2007 against the editorial...

In a judgment on 13 April 2016, the District Court of Amsterdam upheld the complaint of medical company Terumo against broadcasting organisation AVROTROS and two of its employees. The defendants were held liable for damages under Dutch tort law for two broadcasts about medical equipment of producer Terumo. The broadcasts were part of the news programme EenVandaag. In summary, the journalists of EenVandaag reported on two anonymous whistle-blowers, who alleged that medical equipment produced by Terumo could be a threat to public health, and stated that Terumo knowingly maintained these wrongs. The...

The District Court of Midden-Nederland ordered the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Dutch Public Broadcaster NOS), to rectify two articles it had published on its website. In these articles, Mr Baybaşin, the plaintiff, was associated with a person who is suspected of an execution in Turkey in 2014. More than a decade ago, the plaintiff received life imprisonment in the Netherlands for a series of serious offences, such as involvement in murder and hostage taking, and participation as a director in a criminal organisation. The Supreme Court dismissed his appeal in cassation, but in 2011 the plaintiff...