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In its judgment in the case of Matúz v. Hungary, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed the importance of whistleblower protection, in this case for a journalist who alarmed public opinion regarding censorship within the public broadcasting organisation in Hungary. The case concerned the dismissal of a television journalist, Gábor Matúz, working for the State television company Magyar Televízió Zrt., after having revealed several instances of alleged censorship by one of his superiors. Matúz first contacted the television company’s president...

On 15 July 2014, the Dutch authority for consumers and markets (Autoriteit Consument en Markt) (ACM) imposed an order for periodic penalty payments on the Dutch public broadcaster NPO (Nederlandse Publieke Omroep) (see IRIS 2014-8/33). The NPO placed tracking cookies on end-user devices without correctly informing the end-user. Therefore, according to the ACM, the requisite consent for the placing of the tracking cookies was not in accordance with Article 11.7a of the Dutch telecommunications act (Telecommunicatiewet) and the Dutch data protection act (Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens). In order...

On 18 September 2014, the Amsterdam Court handed down the first national application of the EU Court of Justice’s Google Spain judgment (see IRIS 2014-6:1/3). The case was initiated by a convicted criminal after Google had not fully granted his online removal requests. The court rejected the claim, but it should be noted that the case strongly depends on its specific circumstances. Although the case concerns a judgment in summary proceedings, it is interesting to assess the court’s considerations. The facts are as follows: in 2012, the plaintiff had been convicted for attempted incitement to assassination....

On 18 July 2014, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg formally ratified and implemented the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, as well as its Additional Protocol concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems. As the Grand Duchy was one of the last members of the Council of Europe that had signed (in 2003), but not ratified the Convention and its Protocol, the Chambre des députés (parliamentary assembly) had become subject to pressure from a number of international organisations. Luxembourg had already introduced, before the increasing...

In a judgment delivered on 16 October 2014, the Regional Court of Paris has defined the conditions under which journalists prosecuted for defamation following a concealed-camera report may claim that they acted in good faith, thereby escaping prosecution. Associations responsible for the management of a parish and a school and their representatives, were suing the publication director of a television channel, a number of journalists, and the manager of the production company of the ‘Les Infiltrés’ programme for defamation following the broadcast of a report (followed by a pre-recorded studio debate),...