A German politician who once headed the government’s IT security agency has won a lawsuit against star comedian Jan Böhmermann’s TV show over a segment that ridiculed him for alleged ties to Russia.
A Munich court has questioned four specific statements made by Böhmermann during a segment about Arne Schönbohm, then head of Germany’s Information Security Office (BSI), in a 2022 episode of his widely watched satirical program ZDF Magazin Royale.
But the court denied Schönbohm’s demand for 100,000 euros in financial compensation from public broadcaster ZDF, instead only ordering the broadcaster to stop spreading the claims.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser dismissed Schönbohm as president of BSI in November 2022, only shortly after Böhmermann ridiculed him for allegedly being too close to a trade group that claimed to have contacts with Russian intelligence services.
Schönbohm fought back against his dismissal and is now chairman of the Federal Academy for Public Administration, an agency of the Ministry of the Interior that trains government officials.
The Interior Ministry declined to comment on the verdict, but said Schönbohm was removed from office due to a “lack of confidence” in his leadership caused by several factors, and that Thursday’s verdict provided no reason to reconsider .
The court found that two statements made during the program in particular could be construed as “that the plaintiff had deliberate contacts with Russian intelligence services,” which constituted “an untrue statement of fact that violated the plaintiff’s general right of personality.”
A satirical expression must also be tested against the standards of freedom of expression if it concerns the factual core of the expression, according to the court.
A “generous standard must be applied, but it reaches its limit when the statement constitutes an untrue factual accusation that violates personal rights,” said the court, which found that four of the five statements at issue in the case border crossed. .
In comments made by his lawyer, Markus Hennig, Schönbohm called for personal consequences at ZDF.
“With completely unfounded accusations, Jan Böhmermann has destroyed my integrity and destroyed my career beyond repair,” Schönbohm said in the statement, which also described the segment and its consequences as a “media execution.”
Hennig said he would consider appealing the decision not to award damages, but nevertheless called the verdict a “great success” for his client.
Schönbohm’s main goal with the lawsuit was to “expose the lying journalism,” Hennig said. He now expects “a public apology from the director” of ZDF.
ZDF said in a statement that the broadcaster “will carefully evaluate the reasons for the decision and decide how to proceed on this basis.”
But the broadcaster again claimed that no allegations were made “directly or indirectly” during the program that Schönbohm had deliberate contacts with Russian intelligence.
The ruling is not yet legally binding and can still be appealed.
