K-Tip: Truth requirement not violated

An error in one of the objectionable points of the reporting is not sufficient to justify a violation of the "Declaration", writes the Press Council in its statement published on Monday. The title "Billion-Bschiss" was undoubtedly an exaggeration, writes the Press Council. In the article itself the K-Tipp explained then however relatively in detail, why it came to this estimate. The exaggeration of facts in headlines and titles is professionally permissible if a fact is thereby brought to the point and a nuance or specification takes place at the latest in the subtitle or at the beginning of the text, writes the Press Council. The title chosen by K-Tipp is not objectionable based on this practice.

Further statement "not to be criticized

The K-Tipp statement objected to by the complainant, according to which the pension funds put "billions into their own pockets", is also not objectionable in the view of the Press Council from the point of view of the duty of truth. In the article it is explained in detail that only a small part of the return generated with the money of the savers is passed on to the insured persons and savers and the largest part flows into the reserves of the pension fund. The statement that the pension funds have had more and more reserves in recent years and decades is also unobjectionable.

Two court cases were described under the title of a text box "Pension funds skimp - courts correct". In its statement to the Press Council, K-Tipp admitted an error: In one case, interest had been paid on a credit balance "too low" and not "not at all," as written in the article. In the opinion of the Press Council, this difference is hardly significant in the context of the article as a whole. (SDA)