DLA Piper successfully defends SAT.1 program “Lebensretter hautnah” before administrative court: TV program does not violate human dignity

DLA Piper has successfully represented Seven.One Entertainment Group before the Schleswig-Holstein Administrative Court. In response to a complaint by the Seven.One Entertainment Group, which includes the TV stations ProSieben, SAT.1 and Kabel Eins, the court overturned a decision by the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein State Media Authority. The media authority had objected to an episode of the SAT.1 program “Lebensretter hautnah – Wenn jede Sekunde zählt” on the grounds that it violated human dignity. The TV program accompanies the operations of rescue workers through the use of bodycams and cameras permanently installed in the rescue vehicles. The court reasoning for this decision in written form has been available since the end of 2023.

The chamber responsible for media law did not see any violation of human dignity in the non-pixelated depiction of the consequences of an epileptic seizure using close-ups of the person concerned. In the scenes in question, no purposeful depiction negating the right for respect of a person could be recognized; this also applied to the shots of the man shown several times, which were objected to by the defendant in particular. The images did not go beyond what was necessary to show the situation of the man concerned; in particular, there was no effect-seeking or voyeuristic depiction.

Considering the overall character of the program, in this case it is not dehumanizing, but rather lies primarily in the realistic documentation of the emergency crews’ work. In order to assess a violation of human dignity, according to the chamber, “the overall character of the program” is important, namely also the editorial embedding and dramatic composition as well as the underlying meaning of the program. In order to assess this, it is therefore generally necessary for the supervisory authority to view the content “in its entirety”, which was also incorrectly omitted here.

“To date, there has only been very sporadic case law on cases in which a violation of human dignity by media content can be assumed. The emphasis on the importance of the overall character of the program for the assessment of a media violation of human dignity is a central finding of the court’s decision”, says DLA Piper partner and litigator Dr Michael Stulz-Herrnstadt.

The DLA Piper team was led by partner Dr Michael Stulz-Herrnstadt with associates Dr. Rabea Kjellsson and Andrea Delle (all Public Commercial Law/Media Law, Hamburg).

The dispute was handled in-house by Jürgen Harling (Legal Director Media Law).