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, which was primarily about magazine HP/De Tijd, Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn was -in passing- called an ‘evidently sick liar’. On 15 May 2008 the Court ruled, in line with earlier case law, that the author of a column has a great extent of freedom and that the column was not unlawful. Please click here for the judgment (in Dutch).
Jens van den Brink has represented Het Parool in preliminary relief proceedings as a result of a number of publications on the activities of the Barazani family, whereby the family was called, amongst other things, ‘Israeli mafia’. On 7 August 2008 the Court ruled that the publications are not unlawful. The fact that the family had actually been involved in illegalities and that in everyday language the word ‘mafia’ is increasingly used with a figurative meaning played a part here. Please click here for the judgment (in Dutch).
In its judgment of 2 September 2008 the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam ruled that the qualification of the Urban District of the Center of Amsterdam and a number of individual officials as ‘administrative blackmailing mafia’ is unlawful. In a publication in national newspaper De Telegraaf, the brothers J and M used the term ‘administrative blackmailing mafia’ in combination with accusations of a series of criminal offenses that had been reported to the police. However, there was no factual basis for the accusations. For an elaborate review of this case, in which the urban district was represented by Eberhard van der Laan, please click here.
In other preliminary relief proceedings about the freedom of speech, the Court of Amsterdam ruled that the exposition “Palestine 1948, Remembering a past homeland” in the Tropenmuseum “is not unlawful in any respect” towards the claimant, nor toward other Dutch citizens of Jewish descent. The claimant has appealed against this judgment. The Tropical Institute was represented by Eberhard van der Laan. Please click here for the judgment (in Dutch).
