Tages-Anzeiger journalist sentenced for defamation
On Wednesday, the Zurich District Court sentenced a journalist from the *Tages-Anzeiger* to a suspended fine for defamation. He had called a physicist and alleged young astronaut an impostor.
The young astrophysicist Barbara Burtscher was featured in various media - including on television - from summer 2009. This gave the impression that the woman was on her way to becoming a NASA astronaut. In August 2010, the journalist Maurice Thiriet uncovered contradictions in the media coverage of Burtscher and in public statements made by Burtscher herself in an article entitled "The imaginary astronaut". Burtscher then filed a lawsuit for defamation.
The journalist, who had received the Zurich Journalism Prize in the Young Talent category for the article, defended himself before the Zurich District Court on Wednesday and described his work as seriously researched. The defense lawyer demanded a full acquittal and stated that Burtscher was light years away from a career as an astronaut. Rather, he argued, she had shown off with incredible bravado.
The court took a different view and sentenced the defendant to a conditional fine of 75 daily rates of 90 francs for defamation. The term impostor comes from the language of crooks and is disparaging, the chairwoman of the court found. The judges also found that the plaintiff actually had certain connections to NASA and clearly denied a permanent position with the American space agency in a television program.
They classified Thiriet's culpability as no longer slight. He not only has to pay the legal costs of CHF 4,000, but also compensate the other side with CHF 7,500. (sda)
