Press Council reprimands BaZ for naming names
The Press Council reprimands the Basler Zeitung and BaZ Online for an article about a pedophile who escaped from the Universities Psychiatric Clinics (UPK) Basel in February. Three experts were named in the text - wrongly, as the Press Council has now found.
The three psychiatric experts of the UPK Basel came off badly in the article of the Basler Zeitung: Their procedural report had driven the pedophile into flight, it said among other things. The full names of those criticized were mentioned. The head of the UPK at the time, Rita Anton, then filed a complaint with the Press Council. She claimed that the three employees of the UPK Basel had been publicly defamed by the reporting. This is according to the decision of the Press Council published on Thursday. The Basler Zeitung, on the other hand, argued that the mention of the names was justified because the experts were people in a leading position in society. In addition, the naming of the reviewers eliminated a "diffuse general suspicion" against all other employees of the UPK.
UPK responsible as an institution
However, the Press Council did not follow this argumentation. Ultimately, the UPK as an institution would bear the responsibility for the expert opinion, the decision states. The Basler Zeitung confused public interest and social curiosity. The mention by name was not justified. nIn contrast, the Press Council believes that the Basler Zeitung did enough to confront the UPK with the allegations. The Press Council dismissed this part of the complaint. The pedophile, who had been convicted several times, had not returned to the UPK on February 12 after an authorized exit on the clinic grounds. After three weeks on the run, he was finally stopped in Berlin.
