Short reporting right

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The right to short reporting is the right of the television broadcasters approved in the European Union to report in picture and sound about events and events that are publicly accessible and of general interest in information.

General

As a rule, radio and television broadcasters can use their reporting rights within the framework of freedom of the press under Article 5 of the Basic Law without restriction. However, there are barriers to reporting where individual third party rights begin and take precedence. On the one hand, this is the right of personality , which protects the individual against encroachment on their sphere of life and freedom ( Article 1, Paragraph 1 and Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law) and grants them domiciliary rights, and on the other hand, copyright law , which is particularly applicable in the case of public Concerts applies.

Access for the media only applies to public meetings . A meeting is only public if its group of participants is not limited to a pre-determined group of people. Therefore, a general meeting of a stock corporation is not open to the public, as only shareholders are permitted. Meetings are events at which people come together for the purpose of joint discussions or rallies. Within the scope of his domiciliary rights, the organizer can determine to whom he grants access and under what conditions.

history

The right to short reports goes back to the introduction of the dual broadcasting system, which has existed in the Federal Republic since January 1984. One of its consequences was increased competition among television broadcasters for viewers. In particular, the private television broadcasters increasingly tried to increase their audience share by acquiring exclusive broadcasting rights to outstanding sporting events. Exclusive meant that other TV channels were excluded from any broadcast. Since private television programs could not be received across the board due to the state of the art at the time, there were considerable gaps in the coverage of television viewers, which led to partial information monopolies. The immediate trigger was an exclusive contract concluded in April 1988 between the German Football Association and UFA Film- und Fernseh-GmbH , which jeopardized nationwide access to Bundesliga games . The resulting public discussion prompted the federal states to take legislative measures. Therefore, on August 31, 1991, the right to short reporting was anchored in the State Broadcasting Treaty for the first time . The right to short reporting is also provided for at EU level in an EU directive of June 1997. Paragraph 18 allows the member states to regulate the exercise of exclusive (i.e. exclusive) broadcasting rights in the event of events "of considerable social importance".

The BVerfG decided on February 17, 1998 that there should not be any free short reports on "professional events"; rather, the payment obligation is based on cheap payment according to § § 1025 ff. ZPO. In the case of "professionally conducted events" it concerns the protection area at the established and exercised commercial enterprise , which includes the commercial organization of sporting events. According to this, occupation is not only the activity selected and taken up on the basis of a personal “calling”, but any employment aimed at gainful employment that is not limited to a one-off act of gainfulness; this professional term is also applicable to legal persons under private law.

Interstate broadcasting treaty

In the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (RStV), Section 5 of the RStV deals in detail with the right to short reporting. It only applies to television, but not to radio and print media. Free short reporting is only possible on publicly accessible events and events if they are of general interest in information (Section 5 (1) sentence 1 RStV). Events of churches and other religious communities do not belong to the group of short reports (§ 5 Abs. 3 RStV). The upper limit is set at 1 ½ minutes (Section 5 (4) RStV), although this only applies to "short-term and regularly recurring events". Free of charge means that the organizer may only charge the usual entrance fee (Section 5 (6) RStV). If possible, the broadcast should be registered ten days before the start of the event. The organizer can demand that the report be broadcast at a later date than the event. In addition, the organizer can also completely exclude the transmission of an event, but then no television station may be granted transmission rights, not even exclusively. The right to short reporting does not give a right to information, but is only intended to avoid a reporting monopoly. The right to short reports is also limited by personal rights and copyright law (Section 5 (2) RStV).

Exclusive rights

The organizer can choose whether to grant exclusive rights, first, second and third-party exploitation rights or news reporting rights to television. With exclusive rights, there is only one licensee who can only broadcast the event, others are completely excluded. This means that all other television stations are only allowed to provide information about these performances in the form of news programs in the form of short reports.

In January 2013, the ECJ ruled that other television stations were only allowed to report on this free of charge in the context of short reporting of 90 seconds, provided that there are no costs for access to a broadcast signal. The exclusive rights holder is only entitled to reimbursement of costs if there are technical-related expenses. The case before the ECJ was about Sky Austria , which owned the exclusive rights for the Europa League in Austria and was obliged by the Austrian regulatory authority KommAustria to grant ORF one the free right to short reporting in accordance with the Austrian directive on audiovisual media services. The ECJ was of the opinion that the interference with the freedom of occupation of Sky Austria was justified because it served the fundamental right to freedom of information. As a holder of exclusive rights, Sky cannot therefore invoke the protection of Article 16 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (freedom of occupation).

The right to short reports on events of great public interest is also regulated in Article 15 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Accordingly, other television broadcasters are to be granted fair, appropriate and non-discriminatory access to exclusively broadcast events. Short reports may only be made in general news programs, however, subject to the deadlines for broadcasting and stating the source of the image material. The individual short reports must not exceed 90 seconds in length.

International regulations

The background to the right to short reporting is Article 9 of the Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television of May 5, 1989. As a signatory state , the Federal Republic of Germany has adopted the State Treaty on Short TV Reporting, which has been incorporated into the State Treaty on Broadcasting. Not least because of the requirements of the Council of Europe, there is already a right to short reports in numerous countries. In addition to Germany, Switzerland and Austria, these are Belgium, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain.

literature

  • Annette-Tabea Lauktien, The State Treaty on Short TV Reporting : Legal Possibilities and Constitutional Limits of Legislative Regulations , Nomos Universitätsschriften Medien, Volume 8, 1992, ISBN 978-3789026713

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Udo Branahl, Media Law: An Introduction , 2008, p. 38 f.
  2. ↑ Directive 97/36 / EC (PDF) of June 30, 1997 (ABlEG L 202/60)
  3. ↑ a b BVerfG, judgment of February 17, 1998, Az .: 1 BvF 1/91 ( Memento of the original of September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de
  4. ↑ BVerfGE 7, 377, 397
  5. ↑ BVerfGE 50, 290, 363.
  6. ↑ Rundfunkstaatsvertrag, in force since January 1, 2013 ( Memento of the original of September 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 691 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jura.uni-koeln.de
  7. ↑ Florian Debortoli, Merchandising and Licensing as Success Factors in European League Systems, 2009, p. 34.
  8. ↑ ECJ, judgment of January 22, 2013, Az .: C-283/11
  9. ↑ Audiovisual Media Services Directive
  10. ↑ "AVMS Directive", 2010/13 / EU
  11. ↑ European Agreement on Transfrontier Television ( Memento of the original from October 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated May 5, 1989 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ma-hsh.de
  12. ↑ Max Schoenthal, Audiovisual Media Services Without Borders , in: IRIS plus - Legal Review of the European Audiovisual Observatory, November 2006, p. 19.