Kachelmann wants 3.25 million euros
A lawsuit brought by television presenter Jörg Kachelmann against the German Bild newspaper (print and online) began on Wednesday at Cologne Regional Court. It is about financial compensation in the millions.
The subject of the lawsuit is the reporting on a rape trial against him. In 2011, Kachelmann was acquitted of the accusation of rape by the Mannheim Regional Court in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The meteorologist accuses Bild of a serious violation of his personal rights. Bild rejects his accusations as unfounded. Kachelmann, who appeared in court in person, is demanding monetary compensation totaling 2.2 million euros from the newspaper and its online edition. He has also taken legal action against the magazines Bunte and Focus. These proceedings
were postponed to another date on Wednesday. Kachelmann's total claims amount to 3.25 million euros.
His lawyer Ralf Höcker expects that he will obtain "the highest compensation ever claimed in Germany for violation of personal rights". The spokesman for the regional court, Christian Hoppe, said that the "sums of money awarded in the case law to date were below the amount that Mr. Kachelmann is demanding".
Injunction action fails
Kachelmann has already suffered a defeat in the dispute over the reporting of the trial: in 2013, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) rejected an action for an injunction against the reporting of the online portal Bild.de in the last instance. The judges considered the public interest to be more important than Kachelmann's personal rights. Accordingly, the media may also report without restriction on intimate details that come up in public criminal proceedings. However, according to the ruling, the primacy of press law does not apply to so-called suspicion reporting prior to an indictment. (SDA)
