Weltwoche author Philipp Gut sentenced

A journalist must be able to prove his accusations - criminal law also applies to the press, the Zurich District Court ruled on Friday. It found Weltwoche author Philipp Gut guilty of defamation. Starting in October 2014, he repeated his accusation several times in Weltwoche: History professor Philipp Sarasin allegedly helped his lover Svenja Goltermann to get a professorship at his own research center at the University of Zurich (read more here). These were serious accusations that Gut, as deputy editor-in-chief of Weltwoche, had made in a broad-based campaign, the judge noted during his long statement of the reasons for the verdict. The two professors had been massively denigrated.

The sources and their protection

Philipp Gut claimed that he could base his statements on a good half dozen trustworthy sources from Sarasin's immediate environment. However, he did not name his sources in court - as he had done earlier in the investigation. He justified this with the protection of sources. In his plea, Gut's defense attorney addressed the role of the media. He said that journalists must be able to uncover wrongdoing. The legal representative of the two professors, who according to their own statements only became a couple in 2013, spoke of "unprecedentedly irresponsible journalism. The Weltwoche journalist had waged a defamation campaign and had "not presented anything concrete to even remotely substantiate his accusations.

Freedom of the press is not a carte blanche

The Zurich District Court came to the same conclusion: "Criminal law also applies to the press," the judge stated. A journalist does not enjoy any privileges in the case of defamation offenses. He cannot make unjustified accusations, he said, and then invoke freedom of the press. "There is no carte blanche." Gut would have had to prove that his statements were true - or at least that he had a good-faith belief that they were true. Because he did not name his sources, the court could not verify this. It therefore reached a guilty verdict. The court punished the journalist with a conditional fine of 180 daily sentences of 130 Swiss francs each and a fine of 5000 Swiss francs. He must also pay the legal fees of the two professors in the amount of over 32,000 francs. The verdict is not yet final and can be appealed to the higher court.

The legal representative of the professors was satisfied with the verdict. It confirmed what his clients had said from the beginning: That they had been "seriously injured in their honor by an untrue, defamatory press campaign." Friday's hearing concerned the criminal part of the dispute. A civil case is also pending in the same matter at the Zurich District Court. The two professors Sarasin and Goltermann have filed a lawsuit against Gut for violation of personality. They are demanding compensation in an amount that has not been quantified in court. (SDA)