Cardinal wins injunction against BILD newspaper

Court bans "BILD" again from making accusations against Cardinal Woelki

Another legal victory for Cardinal Woelki: the Cologne Regional Court has issued another injunction prohibiting BILD editor Nikolaus Harbusch personally and BILD's publisher, Axel Springer SE, from making false allegations against the Archbishop.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has had an illegal report in the BILD report of 05.07.2022 banned. The Regional Court of Cologne has issued a further interim injunction prohibiting BILD editor, Nikolaus Harbusch personally and the publisher of BILD, Axel Springer SE, from making false allegations to the detriment of the Archbishop (interim injunction of 25.08.2022, Ref. 28 O 227/22, not yet final). In the dispute with the Springer publishing house, the Archbishop of Cologne thus wins again.

In the article of 05.07.2022, BILD spread the false statement "The canon lawyer is also certain about the motive for Woelki's breach of official duty".

The Regional Court of Cologne has now banned this statement and states in the grounds for the ban, quote:

"Accordingly, the applicant is entitled to an injunction against the dissemination of the ... statement, which constitutes an untrue factual allegation against the applicant Cardinal Woelki."

The Court thus states in all clarity: the reader had to understand the following statements as factual allegations:

Cardinal Woelki personally dealt with the question of whether the information to the Diocese of Dresden - Meissen, which had been omitted under Cardinal Meisner, had then to be further forwarded with regard to Priest P.. He did not, as the Archdiocese repeatedly stated and the court attested as credible.

It was also to be understood as a statement of fact that Cardinal Woelki deliberately decided not to provide the information. He did not.

With its decision, the Court makes it clear that Cardinal Woelki has made the untruthfulness of these statements by the Bild newspaper credible through his affidavits.

Cardinal Woelki made it clear in the proceedings that he had no reason at all to concern himself with making up the report that had been omitted under Cardinal Meisner. For he was not even aware that the report had been lacking before he took office under Cardinal Meisner.

The publisher of Axel Springer SE and Mr Harbusch had the opportunity to present their views to the court. The Cologne Regional Court took the publisher's and author's submissions into account and has now nevertheless also issued this ban.

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