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The applicants in this case are Lars Lillo-Stenberg and Andrine Sæther, respectively a well-known musician and an actress in Norway, who complained about press invasion of their privacy during their wedding on 20 August 2005. The wedding took place outdoors on an islet in the Oslo fjord that was accessible to the public. Without the couple’s consent, the weekly magazine Se og Hør subsequently published a two-page article about the wedding accompanied by six photographs. The pictures were obtained by hiding and using a strong telephoto lens from a distance of approximately 250...

On 4 December 2013, the District Court in Amsterdam ruled that the broadcasting of a programme by Dutch television show ‘Undercover in Nederland’ (Undercover in the Netherlands), which detailed the dangers of finding sperm donors on the Internet, fell within the responsibility of the media to spread information and ideas of public interest and to execute its vital role of public watchdog. The Court further stated that there was no need to consider the question of whether women who use the Internet to find sperm donors could be seen as a vulnerable group of “victims” that need protection, since...

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) has ruled on 16 December 2013, that the rights to personal image and honour of a disabled person should prevail over the right to information claimed by a television broadcaster in relation to a programme in which a disabled person was ridiculed. The programme, which was broadcast on Tele5 (Mediaset’s Spanish chain), invited a person with mental and physical disabilities, i.e. the plaintiff, to be interviewed. During the course of the interview, the plaintiff was asked personal questions of a sexual nature and was generally made fun of by the interviewer. Afterwards,...

In its decisions of 7 August 2013 and 23 September 2013, the Oberlandesgericht Hamm (Hamm Appeal Court - OLG) ruled that the YouTube video platform is not obliged to delete videos concerning a fatal traffic accident that name the person responsible. The plaintiff in the proceedings had caused a traffic accident in 2008, in which two people were killed. In 2009, he received a suspended one-year prison sentence, a EUR 5,000 fine and a one-month driving ban. The accident was the subject of numerous media reports. Unknown users collected these reports and created a number of videos about the accident....

The Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Media and Information Society, entitled, ‘Freedom of Expression and Democracy in the Digital Age: Opportunities, Rights, Responsibilities’, was held on 7-8 November 2013 in Belgrade, Serbia. The previous ministerial conference on similar issues (‘A new notion of media?’) was held in Reykjavik in 2009 (see IRIS 2009-8/2). Participating ministers in the Conference adopted a Political Declaration and three Resolutions, entitled: 1. Internet Freedom 2. Preserving the essential role of media in the digital age 3. Safety of journalists The...