Acquittal for gossip columnist
Hildegard Schwaninger was fully acquitted by the Zurich District Court of the charge that she had defamed a Winterthur businessman through slander and libel.
The case has been dragging on for years. The district court has already dealt with it for the second time. In August 2012, it sentenced the columnist to a conditional fine for defamation. The verdict was overturned due to a formal error.
At the second attempt, the court has now reached an acquittal, as announced in a press release on Monday. The plaintiff must pay the court costs and pay the other side compensation of more than CHF 10,000. It is not yet clear whether he will take the matter further. The written reasons for the latest verdict are still pending.
In a column in the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper in August 2008, Schwaninger described the entrepreneur as a failed and opaque impostor. He had made a mega bankruptcy by destroying capital. He always had a half-silky lady on each arm. He could no longer enter Switzerland because of illegal activities.
The entrepreneur had demanded a conviction for defamation and a sentence of 100 daily rates of 150 francs. However, the court now followed the defense's request for acquittal. As a gossip columnist, Schwaninger had not written a factual journalistic report. In a gossip column, readers expect linguistic exaggerations. The author had also relied on the in-house lawyer, who had checked the text and classified it as unobjectionable. (SDA)
