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In a judgment on preliminary relief proceedings on 16 January 2015, the District Court of Midden-Nederland refused to prevent a television broadcast that might harm someone’s personal and business interests. The case demonstrates how Dutch courts balance freedom of expression and the right to respect for privacy. The plaintiff worked as a physiotherapist and was convicted for possessing child pornography in 2007. The defendant intended to devote attention to the plaintiff’s conviction in a television broadcast about the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant should...

On 12 February 2015, the Amsterdam Court ruled on a case where the plaintiff requested that Google modify its search results based on search queries containing certain words including, but not limited to the plaintiff’s name. This is the second occasion where the Amsterdam Court has been asked to rule on this subject, popularly referred to as the “right to be forgotten” (see IRIS 2014-10/25). The facts of the case were the following. The plaintiff, a well-known partner at the auditing company KPMG, became involved in a dispute with his contractor, who was reconstructing the plaintiff’s home. The...

The Dutch Telecommunications Data Retention Act (Wet bewaarplicht telecommunicatiegegevens) has been suspended as of 11 March 2015. The Act required providers of public telecommunications services and networks to retain traffic and location data of telephone and internet communications, for the purpose of investigating serious crimes. Telephone data had to be retained for twelve months; internet data for six months. The Act implemented the Data Retention Directive (2006/24/EC) (see IRIS 2006-3/110), which the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated in the Digital Rights Ireland...

On 13 January 2015, the Italian Communications Authority - AGCOM (Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni) approved, by Resolution no. 19/15/CONS, the final text of the investigation related to the drafting of a White Paper on “Television 2.0 in the Age of Convergence”. The investigation was launched by AGCOM by means of Resolution no. 93/13/CONS of 6 February 2013, with the aim at carrying out an in-depth analysis of the general issues related to new television services through IP protocol in the electronic communications sector. According to AGCOM, there were three main points to be investigated:...

The Information Commissioner has issued its decision on whether the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is required under freedom of information law to release certain documents compiled during its investigation into a public broadcaster’s current-affairs programme. The Commissioner held that the BAI was justified in refusing access to interview notes with journalists and written submissions from the public broadcaster RTÉ. On 4 May 2012, the BAI published a determination on RTÉ’s television programme “Prime Time Investigates - A Mission to Prey”, which had included allegations that an Irish...