The Green politician Renate Künast has won in court a success against a Facebook user who must refrain from a false quote. It should not give the impression that Künast had said in an interjection in the Berlin House of Representatives in 1986: "Come on, if there is no violence in the game, the sex with children is quite ok.It's good now," said the district court of Frankfurt am Main With.
As part of a speech by another Member of Parliament in a debate on violence against children in families Künast expressed in 1986 an interjection on a question from a CDU member of parliament. He had asked the speaker how she stood by a motion of the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia to lift the threat of punishment for sexual acts against children. According to the protocol, Künast then said in her interjection: "Come on, if no violence is involved."
In March 2019, the defendant in front of the Frankfurt district court man in the social network Facebook published a post with a picture of Künast. In addition, as a text was inserted: "Come on, if no violence is involved, the sex with children is quite ok. There were many degrading comments below this post.
Already in May 2019, the Frankfurt district court had forbidden the man to give the impression through the Facebook entry that Künast had made the statement. He appealed against this decision. The district court dismissed this opposition on Thursday.
The quote is a false statement of fact, judges ruled. The average viewer understands the statement next to Künast's picture in context as if she had explained that. The impression created by the Facebook user is wrong, because they did not say the part "... the sex with children is ok. The underlining of this false quote hurt Künast in her personality rights.
In addition, the man has reproduced the interjection from the Berlin House of Representatives out of context. Thus, the impression arises that it is a recent statement Künasts act. That the interjection has been more than 30 years ago, the defendant did not reveal.
Berlin district court gives Künast partly right
On Wednesday, the Berlin district court Künast was partly right in a similar case. There, the judges ruled that the short message service Twitter may provide information about a user, such as his name, e-mail address and the date of the publication of tweets. The user in this case had posted a tweet, in which stood behind Künast's name, the sentence "Yes to sex with children". As in Frankfurt, the judges in Berlin saw in it a wrong quote, which Künast had not said so.
The trial in Berlin was about other tweets that she objected to. In September, the judges at the Berlin district court ruled that offensive statements against Künast were admissible. Comments on Facebook like "Drecks Fotze" moved "very close to the border of the applicant's still acceptable". Against the verdict, which caused nationwide outrage, appealed Künast.
