Discretion in Privacy Law

CK - Washington.   The Dr. Bahr Collection publishes a Hamburg ruling of June 6, 2008 in the matter 324 0 1069/07 on the obligation of Internet publishers to suppress the name of a defendant in a criminal matter. Under German privacy and personality laws, a convicted defendant may be entitled to have any mention of a conviction expunged from Internet publications, just as it would be expunged from criminal records after the statutory periods. In the June decision, the court analyzed the requirements in a situation involving a defendant in a current matter. It found the public interest in reporting on the case and the defendant to prevail over the privacy interest of the defendant. As a result, there is no obligation on online publishers to suppress the name of a defendant or to limit publication of a name to the initials -- at least while the convicted criminal remains in prison. The constitutional protection of privacy, known as Persönlichkeitsrecht, is protected by art. 1 of the German federal constitution. It may outweigh the public interest in minor criminal cases. Therefore, publishing the full name a person …