Journalist acquitted after spreading "Dölf" retweet
A journalist ended up in Zurich District Court on charges of alleged defamation or slander after retweeting a post on Twitter. The court has now acquitted him.
The dissemination of a retweet is not punishable by law. The public prosecutor's office accused the Woz journalist of disseminating a message on the short message service Twitter on July 13, 2012 with a so-called retweet. The tweet, written by an anonymous twitterer, referred to the Thurgau SVP cantonal councillor Hermann Lei as "Hermann 'Dölf' Lei". According to the public prosecutor's office, the addition of "Dölf" suggests that Lei sympathizes with Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist ideas. The accused was aware of the inaccuracy of this insinuation, but by forwarding the tweet, he at least accepted the risk of damaging Lei's reputation. The public prosecutor's office requested a conditional fine of CHF 4,500 and a fine of CHF 1,000, while Lei demanded compensation of CHF 1,500.
Retweet classified as a typical media dissemination chain
The Zurich District Court acquitted the accused on Tuesday. He will also receive compensation of CHF 5,400. According to the court, the dissemination of a retweet is "a dissemination chain typical of the media". It compared the procedure to sticking up a poster. Only the author of the message is liable to prosecution, not the person who puts up the poster. It is unclear who wrote the original tweet. The Woz journalist therefore has nothing to fear under criminal law. The situation is somewhat different under civil law. According to the court, the dissemination of the tweet is definitely a violation of personality rights. The court therefore requires the journalist to write a tweet in which he makes it clear that the dissemination of the "Dölf" tweet was not a criminal offense, but that it was a violation of personality rights. The judgment is not yet final. (SDA)
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