Press Council: Complaint against the Republic partially upheld
The Press Council has partially upheld a complaint against the online magazine Republik. Republik had reported on the «world’s most-searched-for swimming pool operator» and, according to the Press Council, did not do enough to protect the man from being identified.
Although the man's name was not mentioned, the name of the bathing establishment and the municipality were, the Press Council stated in its decision published on Thursday. This made it easy for the residents of the municipality and their surroundings to recognize who the man was.
However, identifying reporting is only permitted if the person appears publicly in connection with a topic or if there is an overriding public interest in the naming of the person. In the opinion of the Press Council, none of these conditions were met.
According to Republic-article was wanted by the US judiciary for property offenses. He was referred to the Press Council because he is "neither a politician nor any other person of public interest". The man is also considering a civil lawsuit.
Republic feared risk of confusion
The online magazine argued that the man had already been named several times by his full name. There are numerous media articles in Switzerland and abroad about his allegedly serious white-collar criminal activities. The Republic However, I have not only omitted the full name, but also the initials. In the text, the Badi tenant is called "X".
If the Republic However, if the name of the bathing establishment had been omitted, this would, in their opinion, have led to a considerable risk of confusion. The suspicion could have fallen on any tenant of a bathing establishment on Lake Zurich or in Switzerland. (SDA)
