Facts distorted: Press Council reprimands Blick.ch
The Press Council has partially approved two complaints against Blick.ch. The news portal had distorted facts in one article and thus violated the "Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists".
The article "Because of fake news accusations: Five local councillors of Sargans SG sentenced" appeared on July 22 last year, the Press Council said on Friday. Accordingly, the text reported that five local councillors of Sargans had been sentenced to conditional fines in the first instance. The accusation: they had been guilty of defamation. However, the councillors had received a penalty order.
A penalty order is not a conviction, but only a suggestion of a possible conviction, the Press Council wrote. The accused can reject the proposal and seek a court hearing. At this trial, there is then the possibility of an acquittal or a discontinuation of the proceedings. Whether or not a conviction will actually be handed down is therefore still open.
According to the Press Council, this was particularly true in the present case. The article itself explicitly pointed out in the caption that the complainant in question would probably not accept the punishment and that he had therefore not yet been sentenced. "In this respect, the headline "Because of fake news allegations: Five local councillors of Sargans SG sentenced" contained the distortion of a fact," the Press Council ruled. (SDA)
