Press Law

In 2007 the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam prohibited the Dutch Association against Quackery from calling orthomanual therapist Maria Sickesz a quack. On 15 May 2009 the Dutch Supreme Court 2009 has reversed (in Dutch) this judgment. Sickesz is the founder of orthomanual therapy. She contended that with her treatment method she could not only cure neck, shoulder and back complaints, but also [Read more…] about Supreme Court Reverses Ban on Use of the Word ‘Quack’

The publication of personal data of alleged paedophiles on a website, as well as the publication of a hyperlink to foreign websites where such data can be found, is in conflict with the Dutch Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). This was determined [Read more…] about Virtual Pillories and the Hyperlink as Processing of Personal Data

Russian Businessman Accused

In September and October of 1999 The Times published two articles concerning the Russian businessman Grigori Loutchansky. He and his company Nordex were accused of being associated with the Russian mafia and being active in [Read more…] about Internet Archives Exposed to Liability without Time Limit? (ECHR – Times vs. UK)

On 16 April the Indonesian Supreme Court reversed its earlier verdict of 30 August 2007 in which Time Magazine (Asia) was ordered to pay Indonesia’s former dictator Suharto damages in the amount of 77 million euro. Suharto considered an article devoted to him to be a libelous. Kennedy Van der Laan was involved on behalf of Dow Jones, the New York Times and several other media companies in drafting an “amicus letter” in the [Read more…] about Indonesian Supreme Court reverses ruling on 77 million euro claim of Suharto against Time Magazine

A discussion of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the matter Sanoma vs. the Netherlands dated 31 March 2009

Street Races in Hoorn

On 31 March 2009 the European Court of Human Rights rendered a judgment in the case of Sanoma versus the Netherlands. The Sanoma weekly Autoweek had photographs of a street race of January 2002 in Hoorn in its possession. Before the journalists were allowed to take photographs, they had to [Read more…] about ECHR Verdict Against Right of Non-Disclosure of Dutch Magazine

On 7 November 2008 Hachette Filipacchi Media Netherlands B.V. – in its capacity as publisher of the business magazine Quote – filed an ex parte request against the company Mediamaatjes B.V. of, inter alia, former Quote editor-in-chief Jort Kelder. [Read more…] about Ban on Publication of Adjusted Quote-500 list

European Court of Justice 09/10/08,

Important Poems

On 9 October 2008 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) answered a preliminary question from the German Bundesgerichtshof about the concept of ‘extraction’ from the Databases Directive. Under the Databases Directive, the producer of a database obtains an exclusive [Read more…] about ECJ Gives Ruling on Database Right

On 2 September 2008 the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam ruled that two brothers have acted unlawfully towards the Urban District of the Center of Amsterdam and six of its officials by qualifying them in a full page article in De Telegraaf as administrative blackmailing mafia and accusing them of a series of criminal offenses [Read more…] about Qualification of Urban District as Administrative Blackmailing Mafia is Unlawful

During the past period a number of judgments have been rendered in press cases in which one of the parties was successfully represented by attorneys of Kennedy Van der Laan.

Otto Volgenant has represented national newspaper Het Parool in preliminary relief proceedings regarding a column by Adriaan Jaeggi. In the column [Read more…] about Recent Press Cases Kennedy Van der Laan

A discussion of the judgment of the Court of Utrecht dated 3 September 2008

The Facts

In the summer of 2007 an article was published in the weekly magazine HP/De Tijd entitled ‘Rijkmans Kasteel’, (Rijkman’s Castle), an article about country houses in the Vecht region and the dominant [Read more…] about Barbarians At the Gate