Journalist acquitted in Valais court
A journalist for the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche was acquitted Thursday by the District Court in Sion of the charge of publishing confidential official proceedings. The prosecution had sought a fine of 800 francs for the man.
Attorney General Nicolas Dubuis did not yet comment on a possible appeal. He is waiting for the detailed reasons for the verdict, he told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The journalist had been accused of publishing excerpts from the report of a parliamentary commission on the illegal chalets in Verbier two days before its official publication.
The journalist had "known or at least accepted the possibility of spreading information of a still secret nature in his article," Attorney General Dubuis said at the trial.
"Just doing his job"
According to the journalist's defense lawyer, on the other hand, his client was only doing his job by breaking a "communication embargo." "The report was by no means secret, it was known to all the major players in Valais politics," he said. These had received the report to prepare for the public reaction.
In Verbier, dozens of illegal chalets and vacation homes had been built in 2015 and 2016. They had been approved by the municipality of Bagnes, to which Verbier belongs, although they violated the cantonal building code, the Lex Koller or the law on second homes. (SDA)
