Zurich court finds journalist guilty of defamation
Published: Tuesday, Jan 23rd 2024, 12:40
Updated At: Tuesday, Jan 23rd 2024, 12:41
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The Zurich District Court has found a journalist from the Catholic platform kath.ch guilty of defamation. In an article, she had created the impression that a German manager was anti-democratic and anti-Semitic. The district court imposed a conditional fine of 30 times 120 francs.
Only one source, the anti-Semitism commissioner of Baden-Württemberg, was cited as proof of the manager's anti-Semitism, the judge said in his ruling.
However, the article gave the impression that the accusations came from many people. "There is not enough evidence to accuse him of having a general anti-Semitic attitude," said the judge.
The article on kath.ch was about the manager being uninvited to speak at the Chur Deanery. This was after concerned members became aware of allegations against the German.
According to the judge, there was certainly a public interest in this matter. However, this could also have been described without calling the manager an "enemy of the state" and an anti-Semite.
Defamatory accusations
Although the article only ascribes proximity to the AfD to the company, one gets the impression that he is also meant as the boss, the judge said in the grounds for the ruling.
The judge did not consider the manager's general anti-democratic attitude to be proven. Overall, the accusations were capable of damaging the man's honor.
Anti-Semitism commissioner as a "questionable source"
The manager's lawyer said it was all about discrediting his client. The anti-Semitism commissioner was a questionable source. A court had ruled that he himself could be described as an anti-Semite.
The journalist therefore failed to exercise the necessary care when she used the accusations of this anti-Semitism commissioner and from old articles for her text. The fact that his client had been associated with the AfD and anti-Semitic tendencies had been attributed to him was damaging to his reputation.
"Written under time pressure"
The lawyer for the kath.ch journalist, however, said that sources such as other media or the anti-Semitism commissioner were reliable. Certain statements that could be considered anti-democratic are also available online, for example on YouTube.
The articles from other media containing the allegations had also not been deleted. The journalist stated that she had written the article under a certain amount of time pressure. In court, she described the fact that she had not questioned the manager about the allegations as an omission and a mistake. The portal later published his statement, in which he vehemently denied the allegations, as part of the article.
The ruling can still be appealed to the High Court.
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