Astrophysicist wrongly called an impostor
Journalist Maurice Thiriet has been rebuffed by the Federal Supreme Court. He had called astrophysicist Barbara Burtscher an impostor—wrongly, according to the judges in Lausanne. They dismissed his appeal against the ruling of the Zurich High Court.
The average unbiased reader of the article "Die eingebildete Astronautin", which appeared in the Tages-Anzeiger in August 2010, comes to the following conclusion according to the Federal Supreme Court: Barbara Burtscher repeatedly and actually systematically spread untruths about herself or about her professional qualifications or her professional activity to the public and to that extent lied.
Maurice Thiriet, formerly a journalist at the Tages-Anzeiger and now at the online magazine Watson, was unable to prove that this was actually true. Nor could he prove that he had done everything reasonable to verify the truth of his defamatory statements. The lower courts had convicted him of defamation (Werbewoche.ch reported). The Federal Supreme Court has now dismissed his appeal against this.
Injury accepted
The Federal Supreme Court stated in its decision: Thiriet knows that the term "impostor" used by him can also be understood in the sense of liar and fraudster. He knew or at least accepted that such a statement could affect a person as an honest person.
After the initial media hype surrounding her work and person, the astrophysicist had repeatedly pointed out that she was not a budding NASA astronaut and was only completing astronaut training on a private basis.
Barbara Burtscher had no influence on headlines in the print media such as "Our woman at NASA" or "Swiss woman trains Mars landing for NASA", writes the Federal Supreme Court. At most, she could be criticized for not making it clear early, often and clearly enough that she was not a budding astronaut. In the opinion of the Federal Supreme Court, this does not mean that the astrophysicist is an impostor.
Synonyms not decisive
The court rejected Thiriet's argument that, in the case of ambiguous terms, the most favorable meaning for the journalist must always be assumed, taking into account media freedom. Even if the term "Hochstaplerin" can be used as a synonym for braggart or busybody, it is not understood as such in the overall context of Thiriet's article. (SDA)
