Misquote on the Internet? 10,000 euros in damages possible!

The press chamber of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court has ruled that a blog post must not give the impression that Renate Künast, a member of the Bundestag for the Alliance 90/The Greens, has made statements:

Key Facts

The press chamber of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court prohibits false quotations from Renate Künast.
The defendant created a false impression about Künast's statements on sexualized acts.
A blog post from 2016 contained a misleading quote from Künast.
The court ruled that Künast had never said that sex with children was acceptable under certain conditions.
An earlier summary proceeding already confirmed the incorrect citation and its inadmissibility.
The court found that the defendant had violated the general right of personality.
The decision resulted in monetary compensation of €10,000.

“Comma, if there is no violence involved, sex with children is okay.

”
This quote is wrong. Also the statement

“K thinks child fucking is ok as long as no violence is involved

”
The judges have banned it.

In October 2016, the defendant published an article on his blog with the headline “K finds child fucking ok as long as no violence is involved” and a picture of Renate Künast. Next to it was inserted as text: “Comma, if no violence is involved, sex with children is quite ok after all. It’s good now.”

The defendant had also misquoted Ms. Künast in a later Facebook post from March 2019. That misquote was already the subject of summary proceedings before the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court and was prohibited in a ruling by the Press Chamber on December 5, 2019.

Renate Künast was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives in 1986. During a speech by another Member of Parliament during a debate on violence against children in families, Mrs Künast made a heckling on an intermediate question from a CDU member. He had asked the other MP how she felt about a motion by the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia to lift the threat of punishment for sexual acts against children. According to the minutes of the debate, Renate Künast’s interjection was:

“Comma, if no violence is involved.

”
With regard to the defendant’s blog entry from October 2016, the press chamber of the Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main ruled in a further judgment of 30.01.2020 that the impression should not be created that Ms. Künast had made the quoted statement. The average reader understands the statement shown next to Ms. Künast’s portrait in the overall context as if she had explained it. However, this impression created by the defendant was wrong, because Ms. Künast had not actually said “…sex with children is quite ok. It’s okay now.”

The court considered the blog entry to violate the general right of personality. This justifies a monetary compensation of €10,000.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.