Cath.ch journalist brought before Zurich court for defamation
Published: Monday, Jan 22nd 2024, 14:20
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A journalist from the Catholic Media Center is said to have denigrated a German manager. In an article, the man was accused of having an anti-democratic attitude and spreading conspiracy myths. The journalist challenged the penalty order at the Zurich District Court on Tuesday.
The article was published after the CEO of a German company was uninvited to speak at the plenary assembly of the Chur deanery on November 10, 2022. The Vicar General had arranged for this because concerned members of the deanery had informed him about the speaker.
The public prosecutor's office accuses the journalist of giving the impression that the manager is close to the AfD and has anti-Semitic views.
Various sections are quoted in the penalty order, such as "has also attracted attention through anti-democratic positioning" or "spread conspiracy myths about an alleged cultural Marxism conspiracy of the German-Jewish Frankfurt School". His company is also said to have been involved in financing the AfD.
Other media quoted
The journalist took the accusations from other media and the commissioner against anti-Semitism of the state government of Baden-Württemberg, as the original article shows. This was supplemented with a statement from the manager in which he rejects all the accusations.
With the article, the journalist at least accepted the risk of offending the victim's feeling of being an honorable person, according to the penalty order.
The public prosecutor sentenced the 56-year-old to a conditional fine of 40 times 120 francs for defamation. This was with a probationary period of two years.
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