Enlarge image
City view of Luxembourg: the maître was allowed to rage
Photo: Valentin Lung Illes / PantherMedia / Valentin Lung Illes / IMAGO
Pages of letters to the editor in newspapers, magazines or websites are generally uncommented.
Nevertheless, there is an editorial choice as to which letters are published.
That's why a former newspaper editor and the parent company of the Luxembourg RTL subsidiary were in the dock at a hate speech trial against a well-known lawyer.
And that's why the process also touched on questions of press freedom.
In 2015, the lawyer Gaston Vogel wrote a letter to the mayor of the city of Luxembourg, Lydie Polfer, in which he complained about Romanian beggars in the Grand-Rue of the capital - in extremely derogatory terms: There was talk of "scum", " disgusting” is the “stench”.
The lawyer's open letter was published on both the RTL.lu website and the "Lëtzebuerger Journal", which was still published as a newspaper at the time.
The Human Rights League filed a lawsuit against both the lawyer and the media that circulated the letter.
The public prosecutor's office investigated and finally filed a criminal complaint for "incitement to hatred".
"Annoyed use of language"
In court, Maître Vogel then spoke of harassment and human trafficking by organized beggar gangs, which he wanted to draw attention to.
At the same time, his collar was bursting, so to speak, because beggars often sat down in front of the entrance to his office.
This is how Luxembourg media such as the “Wort” or the “Tageblatt” reported.
The RTL parent company CLT-Ufa and the former "Journal" editor, who were accused of violating their duty of care, pointed out in their defense the social context in which the letter was written.
After an initial acquittal at the end of 2021, the Court of Appeal in Luxembourg acquitted the 85-year-old lawyer and the media that had distributed his letter of the allegations this week.
'He put it in his own way, but in a public context.
That's why he was able to use harsher language than is normally permitted within the framework of freedom of expression," the "word" quotes Vogel's lawyer.
Feb
