»Freedom within the press« and »Tendency protection« under Art. 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the freedom of expression and information and, therewith, also the freedom of the press on an European level. Recently there have been, especially at the level of the EC and the Council of Europe, calls to legally entrench a »freedom within the press« («Innere Pressefreiheit«). The aim is to strengthen and formalise the editorial freedom enjoyed by editors and journalists. A conflict exists between these efforts and the protection that owners enjoy in determining what their enterprises publish and what political viewpoints are expressed. A particular manifestation of this problem is the »tendency protection« («Tendenzschutz«) available to owners of press and media enterprises. According to this the right of co-determination normally available to employees in the Works Council does not apply to employees in press and media enterprises. The present volume examines the question whether the efforts to entrench a freedom within the press are consistent with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In this regard special attention is paid to the guarantees and effects of the European media freedom in relation to companies.

This publication is an English summary of »'Innere Pressefreiheit' und Tendenzschutz im Lichte des Art. 10 der Europäischen Konvention zum Schutze der Menschenrechte und Grundfreiheiten« published in 1996 in »Schriften zum europäischen Recht«, vol. 27.