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German TV fights for right to broadcast from court

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November 8, 2000 

KARLSRUHE (AP) - Germany's highest court heard arguments Tuesday on a television station's plea to allow cameras into courtrooms, but judges and attorney groups complained it would bring "U.S.-style conditions" to German trials.

Broadcaster n-tv said balanced television reports of trials would help viewers understand the justice system, and said its reporters were at a disadvantage to print journalists.

Arguing against lifting the camera ban, judges and attorneys warned that television stations would only be interested in the most spectacular cases.

"We fear it would come to U.S.-style conditions," said Achim Kraener, head of an attorneys' group. High-profile trials are regularly carried live on U.S. television.

For the government, Justice Ministry official Eberhard Siegismund suggested that while cases before certain administrative courts could be exempted from the current ban, trials in civil or criminal courts should remain off-limits for television.

"The participants should concentrate on the trial, not the impression they are making on millions of viewers" Siegismund said.

Under current law, television stations can only broadcast verdicts. News station n-tv has done that only three times, but denied that this is because it is only interested in more dramatic scenes.

The Constitutional Court is expected to deliver a decision next year.