Overview
- Landgericht Berlin II, which published its written reasons Tuesday, prohibited Correctiv from stating there was a “master plan” to expel German citizens and from calling it a plan to bypass Articles 3, 16 and 21 of the Basic Law.
- The judges said the contested lines were not only untrue but also unclear, imprecise and incomplete, citing omitted context that Martin Sellner had acknowledged German citizens could not be forced to leave.
- The court also forbade claims about an “expatriation idea” in Sellner’s talk and about AfD lawmaker Gerrit Huy proposing to strip dual nationals of their German citizenship, finding those assertions untrue.
- Hamburg’s regional court had earlier treated the same wording as protected opinion, and plaintiffs used Germany’s venue rules in press cases to file in different cities, producing conflicting first-instance outcomes.
- Correctiv and the named editors have appealed in Berlin, with a parallel Hamburg appeal pending, and the Berlin ruling stressed heightened reporting duties because the article invoked the Wannsee Conference and could gravely harm participants’ reputations.