Source: https://www.ecpmf.eu/news/legal/archive
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 04:48:21+00:00

Document:
On 5 July 2016, then culture secretary John Whittingdale, who was replaced as culture secretary by Karen Bradley on 14 July 2016, introduced the Digital Economy Bill 2016-17 to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Criminal conviction and imposition of a fine on a journalist under 216(2) of the Polish Criminal Code for an article mocking local government officials violates the editor´s right of freedom of expression. With this judgment from July 5th 2016 in the Case of ZIEMBIŃSKI v. POLAND (No. 2) the European Court of Human Rights underlines the editor´s right of freedom of expression as protected under Art. 10 ECHR.
In its judgement of 14 July 2016, the European Court of Human Rights’ Fourth Section decided that ordering a politician to publish an apology for defaming a Polish newspaper violated Article 10 of the Convention (Application no. 26115/10).
The producer of an investigative TV show claims it was pulled on Sunday because it probed the Mayor of Tirana’s links to a controversial recycling plant, though the TV station denies the show's content was the issue.
The first meeting of the Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) was held in Brussels on 27 September. It concerned the launch of a new whistleblowing platform organised by the Greens/European Free Alliance.
The Austrian Supreme Court (ASC) has asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to clarify two issues associated with the Facebook privacy class action claim. The case was initiated by Austrian lawyer Maximilian Schrems five years ago.
Media organizations have demanded the release of the investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic folllowing claims that the prosecution pressured another suspect in the drug-related case to accuse him falsely.
The Senate (upper Chamber of the Romanian Parliament) definitively rejected on 13 June 2016 the draft Law intended to abolish the audiovisual licence fee. The Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber) had rejected the project on 2 March 2016.
The Senate (upper Chamber of the Romanian Parliament) definitively rejected on 13 June 2016 the draft Law intended to obligate all the audiovisual media services providers under Romanian jurisdiction to broadcast daily at 7,00 a.m. the National Anthem, the complete version. The Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber) had rejected the project on 2 March 2016.
On 31 May 2016, the Administrative Court of Augsburg decided that a blog is not a press medium and therefore, the author of the blog cannot assert any rights of the press act (Au 7 E 16.251).
On 29 April 2016, the Belgian Court of Cassation decided that a newspaper has to anonymise an article about a deadly car accident in its online-archive.
A former pupil of a school in the German District Hessen (“Odenwaldschule”), where the systematic abuse of children took place, tried to stop the broadcast of a film version of the dramatic events titled “The elected” (“Die Auserwählten”) by the German public broadcaster WDR. The District Court (“Landgericht”) Hamburg dismissed his action on the 3rd of June 2016 (rn.: 324 O 78/15).
The German daily newspaper „taz“ is allowed to show a picture of the German politician and right-wing populist Björn Höcke from the right-wing party “Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)” with his right arm stretched out. Although, the photo may not be shown in combination with the initially chosen headline “Hitler salute in occident”.
In late 2015, Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner set up a parliamentary working group to tackle the role of the Finnish public service broadcaster, Yleisradio (Yle). Among other measures, the working group has since recommended that the scope and primary task of the service be redefined, while its financial independence should be preserved.
Spain’s new security laws are violating journalists’ right to do their jobs, according to a new defence committee that is monitoring and contesting the legal reforms.
The planned film version of a real hostage drama, which happened in the German town of Gladbeck in 1988, is legally permissible. The general personality rights (rights over personal publicity) of one of the hostage-takers and condemned murderers do not conflict with the realisation of the film project.
Belgian court rules that killer doctor has "the right to be forgotten"
On 29 April 2016, the Belgian Court of Cassation decided that a newspaper has to anonymise an article about a deadly car accident in its online archive. The plaintiff is a medical doctor.
Italy gets its first Freedom of Information Act – but will it work?
In May 2016, the Italian Government passed the Freedom of Information Act. The law foresees the right of every citizen to request information from public authorities without having to give a reason.
The Internet has offered millions of users the opportunity to access an unprecedented corpus of information, alongside the benefits of electronic communication. At the same time, regulation of the online domain is gradually being tightened, as an analysis of the most recent challenges to the ECtHR in Turkey and Russia shows.
Despite lobbying by media organizations, the Parliament of the Czech Republic has adopted an amended law extending the crime of defamation to legal persons. Broadly speaking, the Czech Republic did not abolish the criminalization of defamation for individuals but instead has introduced the criminalization of defamation for legal entities.
In a judgement given on May 19th 2016, the UK Supreme Court ruled in favour of a celebrity who had taken legal actions against the News Group Newspapers. The Court ruled with a majority of 4:1 (Case no.:  UKSC 26).
In its decision in early March, the Westminster Magistrates Court found a British newspaper, The Sun, guilty of breaking the Sexual Offence (Amendment) Act after inadvertently identifying a victim of sexual assault.
Antoine Deltour, Raphaël Halet and Edouard Perrin, three French nationals, were brought before the Correctional Tribunal of Luxembourg on April 26th 2016 in what is commonly referred to as the LuxLeaks Trial.
The German Johannes Gutenberg-university in Mainz is obliged, to release its contracts with a sponsor to a journalist. That was decided by verdict of the Mainzer administrative court on May 11th 2016 (Az.: 3 K 636/15).
Germany: Higher Regional Court of Munich on the publication of photographs taken from social media.
On 17 March 2016, the Higher Regional Court of Munich (OLG Munich) decided that a newspaper is not allowed to publish the name and profile picture of a Facebook user who had posted anti-refugee comments.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe published a Recommendation on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists. The Recommendation is based on the documents published by the media, non-governmental organisations and human rights defenders.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg decided that the conviction of a journalist for publishing secret information does not violate the right to freedom of expression protected by article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
On 17 May 2016, The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that the publication of a psychological expertise from 1993 concerning a registered psychological expert for court proceedings is not a violation of art. 8 European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR, Applications no. 33677/10 and 52340/10).
On May 2nd 2016, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, the Luxembourgish journalists’ associations seized the opportunity to highlight the need for a right of access to information in Luxembourg.
Investigative journalism sometimes operates at the limits of the law. This is especially true of what could be called ‘check it out’ journalism: reporting in which a journalist tests how effective a law or procedure is by attempting to circumvent it.
The controversial new ’big media law’ to permanently change the face of Polish public service broadcasting has been put on hold.
Due to take effect from 1st July, the reform has sparked protests and demonstrations on the streets of the Polish capital Warsaw and all other major cities.
On 13 March 2016, the German Federal Administrative Court Bundesverwaltungsgericht decided that Members of Parliament have a right to confidentiality regarding their office supply purchases (no. 6 C 65.14).
Boxsets, Netflix, video on demand – all Europe’s many international TV and video services will soon be governed by a new Audio Visual Directive. Converging technologies mean that some newspapers that publish online videos (for example, Bild, the Guardian) will also be regarded as ’TV-like’ and face a new regulatory regime.
The European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) decided on 17 march 2016 (Application no.16313/10) that the repeated publication of pictures of a famous footballer’s children by the same tabloids over a lengthy period of time does not necessarily violate article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
On 15 March 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) declared an application of the German newspaper Handelsblatt inadmissible (Application no. 52205/11). The paper had been claiming a violation of art. 10 European Convention for Human Rights (ECHR) for having been forbidden to publish a photomontage.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided on 22 March 2016 (application no. 48718/11) that the conviction of a journalist for publishing unauthorized recordings of a criminal trial violates art. 10 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
On 19 January 2016, the German Supreme Court Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) decided that a request to terminate the bank account of an interest group of fur farmers addressed to that group’s bank can be considered a legal call for boycott (AZ: VI ZR 302/15).
On 9 February 2016, the England and Wales Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal brought by a number of media organisations against continuing restrictions on reporting about a trial concerning terrorism (case no.  EWCA Crim 11).
On 01 March 2016, a commission installed by the British government to review the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has presented its findings. After several months of review, the commission now recommends to strengthen the law in several aspects.
The German Supreme Court Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) has decided that a request to terminate the bank account of an interest group of fur farmers addressed to that group’s bank can be considered a legal call for boycott (AZ: VI ZR 302/15, 19 January 2016).
A new EU Trade Secrets Directive – and a danger to media freedom?
The European Parliament adopted a new directive on trade secrets. But journalists’ organisations criticize the move as they fear that investigative journalism will be restricted.
The Norwegian Supreme Court was awarded the Global Freedom of Expression Prize 2015 by the Columbia University. ECPMF Executive Board member Prof. Dirk Voorhoof held the awarding speech.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found the Portuguese state guilty of violating freedom of expression after a journalist was fined for broadcasting courtroom recordings without the judge’s approval.
Reporter ohne Grenzen, the German section of Reporters Sans Frontières is suing the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German secret service, as they claim the BND is surveilling them. They are not only going to court to fight for their own rights, but to protect press freedom in Germany.
Her Majesty the Queen has made a formal complaint to Britain’s press regulator IPSO about a story in the Sun newspaper that claims she is anti-EU and appears under the headline ’QUEEN BACKS BREXIT’.
On 27 January 2016, the Supreme Court granted a released double murderer's request to stay anonymous ( EWCA Civ 1009). The murderer was suffering from severe mental illness for a long time, was convicted of murdering two persons in 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 11 years. It was a particularly savage killing which had caused untold suffering to the victims and has continued to cause great grief to their families.
On 14 January 2016, The Irish Times published an article, reporting that the Irish police ombudsman (the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission - Gsoc) had accessed the mobile phone records of two journalists.
David Miranda is a freelance journalist who had worked on the Snowden stories for the Guardian newspaper. He was stopped and questioned for 9 hours at an airport in the UK; items in Miranda’s possession (encrypted storage devices containing information leaked by Edward Snowden about the activities of security services) were taken from him.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg ruled on 12 January 2016 (Application No. 55495/08) that the conviction of a human rights activist for defamation does not violate Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which protects the right to freedom of expression.
The High Court of Justice of England and Wales decided on the 22 January 2016 (Case No: TLJ/15/0654) that there is no need to continue proceedings for defamation if the reputation of the claimant was effectively restored.
On 4 December 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that an editor is entitled to claim to be a victim of a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), even if he is unable to allege that he had been the subject of concrete measures of surveillance or telecommunication interception (Application no. 47143/06).
On 3 November 2015, the National Audiovisual Council (Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului, CNA) issued the Recommendation no. 4/2015, regarding the tragic night fire in the Colectiv Club in Bucharest on 30 October 2015, which resulted in 60 dead and over 150 injured. The death toll refers to the time of writing this article (29 November 2015).
On 8 December 2015, the 6th Senate of the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg decided that the federal government is not obliged to give information to a representative of the press on a report of the German ambassador in Ukraine (OVG 6 S 37.15).
On 12 January 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, application no. 37138/14) decided that the Hungarian anti-terrorist surveillance Law is a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Article 8 ECHR protects the right to respect for private and family life, as well as the home and correspondence. The Court found that the Law is prone to abuse by Hungarian authorities.
Britain's Court of Appeal has ruled that the UK's Terrorism Act is not compatible with human rights, and more protection is needed for journalists and their confidential sources and materials.
After the political transformation which took place in Poland in 1989, actions were undertaken so as to create independent, pluralistic public media. Work on the Broadcasting Act went on for quite a long time, as it was only on 29 December 1992 that the act was finally passed, and on 1 March 1993 that it entered into force.
What can the EU do to defend media freedom in Poland?
The rule of law is the legal principle which states that the law should govern a nation instead of individual government officials with their arbitrary decisions. The rule of law is a prerequisite for the protection of all fundamental values of the European Union, as they are listed in art. 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).
Poland’s new government is under intense pressure from the EU Commission and from Europe’s journalists and media freedom campaigns. They fear the new media law aims to get rid of critical journalists and hand power over the national public broadcasting channel TVP directly to the ruling Law and Order Party.
In its judgement of 13 October 2015, the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg (Oberlandesgericht Hamburg) decided that an injunctive relief concerning research work can only be granted within very narrow bounds (Case 7 U 4/12).
On 25 February 2015, the Romanian Senate (upper Chamber of the Parliament) rejected with an overwhelming majority the Propunerea legislativă privind înfiinţarea Fondului Special pentru Jurnalismul de Investigaţie (Draft Law on setting up the Special Fund for the Investigative Journalism). The final decision belongs to the second Chamber, the Chamber of Deputies.
The Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht - OLG) Karlsruhe ruled on 2 February 2015 (case no. 6 U 130/14) that the interest of the public to be informed is justifying a news report about an ongoing investigative procedure which might lead to the identification of the person reported about.
The Commission may not automatically refuse the access to written submissions of the Member States in a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), with the reason that the written submissions are documents of the court. This was ruled by the ECJ by decision on 27 February 2015 (case no.T-188/12).
The German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) ruled in its decision of 18 November 2014 that, while affected people do not have a right on rectification after the suspicions have been cleared out, they can demand a postscript, making clear that the initially admissible suspicion had turned out to be wrong (case no. VI ZR 76/14).
The European Court of Human Rights held in its judgement from 24 February 2015, in the case of Haldimann and Others v. Switzerland (application no. 21830/09), that the conviction of four journalists, for having recorded and broadcast an interview of a private insurance broker without his consent by using a hidden camera, infringed their freedom of expression.
If a representative of the press requests information about the names of persons who participated in court proceedings, this request is to be granted regularly, decided the German Federal Administrative Court Bundesverwaltungsgericht (BVerwG) on 1 October 2014 (case no: 6 C 35.13).
ECtHR: Right to information according to Art. 10 ECHR – Press or anybody?
The ECtHR rejected on 6 January 2015 a German’s appeal and ruled that public authorities do not necessarily infringe Art. 10 of the Convention by refusing to give information (application no. 70287/11).
In its decision of 13 January 2015, the German Federal Supreme Court allowed the publication of the full name of a known hairstylist in an article about the criminal conviction of one of his branch managers (case no. VI ZR 386/13).
Reacting to the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and only a few months after the adoption of the French Anti-Terrorism Act on 13 November 2014, the government decided to reinforce the provisions relating to the fight against terrorism and to tighten its laws on crimes committed on the Internet. As a consequence, on 19 March 2015, the French Prime Minister before the National Assembly presented a new bill on intelligence.
On 25 March 2015 the Federal Administrative Court of Germany in Leipzig ruled that representatives of the press can demand information about facts that protect business secrets from government agencies, if their right to be informed outweighs the interest of business secret protection.
On 13 March 2015, the Thuringian Higher Administrative Court rejected in its decision (case no. 1 EO 128/15) the request of a representative of the press, to send a copy of a non-final criminal verdict, still subject to appeal.
On 12 March 2015 (case no. 27 K 183.12) the Administrative Court in Berlin denied the right of a journalist to have a "timeliness priority" (Recht auf Aktualitätsvorsprung).
With decision of 25 November 2015, the High Court of England dismissed an action by Tim Yeo, former Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, against Times Newspapers (Case HQ14D01146).
On 20 November 2015, in the case Weller and Ors v. Associated Newspaper Ltd ( EWCA Civ 1179 – Case No.: A2/2014/2190) the England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) held that children have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they are on a family shopping trip.
On the 2nd of December 2015, the German Press Council had to deal with complaints about the coverage of the refugee crisis in German media. Nineteen of these complaints were addressed against several newspapers who had shown pictures of a drowned boy in their print and online articles, whose dead body had been found at a beach in Bodrum (Turkey).
On 1 December 2015, in the case Cengiz and Others v Turkey (appl. no. 4822610 and 14027/11), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held, that the blocking of access to YouTube is a violation of the right to freedom of expression according to article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECtHR).
The Judgement of the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR of 20 October 2015 (Application no. 11882/10) states that a criminal conviction of a journalist who disobeyed a police order while covering a public demonstration does not violate the right of freedom of expression according to Art. 10 of the Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
Mr David Kaye is the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. He was appointed by the Human Rights Council, an inter-governmental body within the UN system.
In its judgement of 15 September 2015 the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) has decided that a pupil’s personality rights were violated when a teacher published a book in which she describes the pupil’s classroom behaviour (Case VI ZR 175/14).
In its judgment of 13 October 2015 (Application no. 17224/11), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held, by four votes to three, that there had been no violation of the freedom of expression according to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Only a few days before the series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks that occurred in Paris and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis, on 13 November 2015, the French Government decided to legalise the surveillance of international electronic communications by French intelligence services with the adoption of a new Bill on international surveillance.
The German Constitutional Court has announced that the constitutional justification for the verifying the identity of a protester – by observation or through a request to hand over the identification card – requires a concrete threat to public security and order.
On 30 September 2015, the Regional Court of Cologne (Landgericht Köln awarded a record compensation amount of 635,000 EUR to the former weather presenter Jörg Kachelmann in a lawsuit against the publishing house Axel Springer (Cases 28 O 2/14 and 28 O 7/14).
On 15 October 2015, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights decided that the criminal conviction of the Turkish politician Doğu Perinçek was a violation of his right to freedom of expression, according to article 10 European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR, application no. 27510/08).
On 19 October 2015, the Court of Appeal set aside a € 900,000 defamation award made against the Sunday World newspaper. The award had been made by a High Court jury in 2008, following successful defamation proceedings taken by an individual over a Sunday World article which had described him as a "drug kingpin".
The German Press Council, which is – inter alia – responsible for the evaluation of complaints against journalistic reports based on the press code, published a press release on 13 March 2015, issuing seven public reprimands, 17 disapprovals and 42 advisory notices.
On 21 January 2015, twelve new members of the national Ethical Journalism Committee in Bulgaria began their work.
The German Press Council has supplemented the requirements for an ethical press on the internet. In its meeting, held on 3 November 2014 in Berlin, the self-regulatory body adopted additional journalistic guidelines and updated some of the existing ones.
During the revision of the Press Code, special attention was given to the second chapter on duty of care where a new guideline was introduced, namely the "User Generated-Content".
The German Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht Hamburg – case no. 7 W 24/15 | 18 February 2015) decided that an injunction order against journalists, which prohibits them from publishing an article, does not oblige them to prevent other media companies from publishing the same article.
The dismissal of a journalist by the police during a demonstration may be lawful, as it was decided by a German administrative court (VG Köln | no. 20 K 5427/13 | 23 April 2015).
The plaintiff is a journalist who was at a demonstration about coal mining at the end of August 2013. The representatives of the press were assigned at a certain point of a bridge above a railway line where they had a good overview of the action.
The German press was allowed to name and to portray the co-pilot of the Germanwings-Flight 4U9525 in most cases. That was announced by the German Press Council in a press release dating from 4 June 2015.
Imposing a fine on the operator of an online forum due to offending user comments does not violate Art. 10 ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Delfi AS v. Estonia (Application no. 64569/09).
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declared a human rights violation in Romania on 07 July 2015. A journalist and satirist had been convicted on criminal defamation charges for publications in a satirical magazine by a Romanian County Court.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that the criminal conviction of an Icelandic journalist for the reporting on unproven criminal investigations was a violation of the journalist’s right to freedom of expression (02 June 2015).
The High Court of Northern Ireland dismissed an action for a preliminary injunction to prohibit the identifying reporting on a murder suspect (No.  74 NIQB/26 August 2015).
Germany is facing an intense public debate on the role of investigative journalism and the freedom of the press, after the Federal Attorney General in May 2015 initiated investigations for treason against two journalists Andre Meister and Markus Beckedahl of the German blog "netzpolitik.org" and as a result was sent into retirement by the Minister of Justice.
On 16 June 2015 the Swedish Supreme Court suspended the execution of a search warrant of an editorial office. The Court amended the Court of Appeal’s decision and rejected the petition concerning the search of the premises. The Court ruled that the execution would not take place until further notice.
With a verdict of 10 of August 2015, the Higher Administrative Court of Münster (Oberverwaltungsgericht Münster) decided that the German Federal Ministry for Agriculture must allow a journalist the inspection of an expert opinion on the Nazi past of its former employees. The decision, in part, also includes redacted areas of the opinion. (Case 8 A 2410/13).
On 7 July 2015, the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg decided that the right to be forgotten can be claimed against the provider of an online archive of a newspaper (Case no. 7 U 29/12).
A prohibition, issued by Finnish authorities, to publish taxation data of a large number of Finnish citizens does not violate the right to freedom of expression and information, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in a judgment handed down on 21 July 2015.
In July 2015, the Ethics Commission of Journalism Ethics (the Commission) had to decide upon complaints regarding the infringement of the right to privacy in two separate cases.
In July 2015, the Ethics Commission of Journalism Ethics (the Commission) had to rule on complaints concerning the discrimination of Roma on two TV shows.
France: preventing another Charlie Hebdo with new surveillance powers?
Reacting to the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and only a few months after the adoption of the French Anti-Terrorism Act on 13 November 2014, the government decided to reinforce the provisions relating to the fight against terrorism and to tighten its laws on crimes committed on the Internet. As a consequence, on 19 March 2015, the French Prime Minister presented a new bill on intelligence to the National Assembly.
The UK government’s law on data retention has been declared illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights. It follows a court battle by campaigners including the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Two High Court judges have ordered that the Data Retention Investigatory Powers Act (known as DRIPA) must cease on March 31st 2016.
Human rights officials highlight the crackdown on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan ahead of the inauguration of the European Games in Baku.
By July 1st, the 74 Serbian media still owned by the state or local governments will have to be privatised, but some say the deadline could slip to October.
“A reckless act” Interview about the closing of the Greek public television ERT.
The closing of the Greek public television was a reckless act against democracy. An interview with Greek journalist Dimitri Deliolanes.

References: v. 
 Art. 10
 UKSC 
 art. 8
 art. 10
 art. 10
 EWCA 
 EWCA 
 application no. 37138
 art. 2
 v. 
 Art. 10
 Art. 10
 v. 
 EWCA 
 Art. 10
 application no. 27510
 Art. 10
 v.