Press Council: Complaint against 20 Minuten Online partially approved

The print edition of the free paper printed two of the photos in relatively small format, but online there were always new pictures, some of them greatly enlarged, and later also various videos of Gaddafi's mistreatment. Two readers complained to the Press Council that the photos of the "brutal execution of a defenceless person at the time of death" were inhumane - "regardless of what one wants to think of Gaddafi as a human being or as a politician". 20 Minuten and 20 Minuten Online argued that the pictures were historical documents that recorded "the definitive end of Gaddafi's regime of power"; the public interest in publication outweighed the right to rest in peace of the dead.

The Press Council states in this regard: A historical event does not become more historical by being shown from different angles and brought close to the viewer by means of zoom technology. Disproportionate, sensationalistic reporting merely serves the public curiosity of the audience, which is not to be equated with public interest. The photo and video offering about the mistreatment and death of Muammar al-Gaddafi on 20 Minuten Online therefore violated human dignity. 20 Minuten, on the other hand, did not violate the "Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists" with its visually much more restrained reports on the death of Gaddafi.