Verfassungsrechtliche Fragen zur Online-Informationstätigkeit von Kommunen

Local communities in Germany are increasingly publishing their own press articles on their websites, covering events in local businesses, culture, sports and social commitments. In doing so, they are competing with local private press companies, whose basic task is to report on life in their local communities. Through their online editorial activities, these local communities are coming into conflict with the German constitution’s stipulations for a press that is free of state involvement and dominated by private publishers in order to guarantee a free and objective press. As a part of the state, communities do not belong to the sphere of those entitled to fundamental rights but to the sphere of state authority. The communities therefore rely on their constitutionally substantiated expertise in public relations as well as on their right to self-government. This study investigates the tensions between municipal expertise in public relations and the constitutional right of a free press.