Published: March 8, 2017
German television station ZDF refuses to apologize for using the term "Polish concentration camps," despite having been ordered to do so by the Kracow Court of Appeal, an order confirmed by the German District Court of Mainz. Attorney Lech Obara told IAR Radio that he believes the Polish court judgment will be fully executed.
The lawyer considers the objections made by ZDF with respect to the execution of the judgement to be unfounded and he is preparing a response on behalf of his client Karol Tendera, a Polish national and former prisoner of the German death camp in Auschwitz. Lech Obara is determined that the sentence be executed.
He points out that based on Article 88 of the German Procedural Code he will be able to force ZDF to fulfil the court order either by a fine of 25 thousand Euros or by arrest.
The attorney is convinced that awareness of the legal remedies will convince ZDF to take the grievance of Karol Tendera as well as the judgment of the Polish Courts seriously. The objection submitted by the German television station questions – in the opinion of attorney Obara – the correctness of the Polish court’s judgement. However the judgment is final and at this stage this issue cannot be raised by the defendant because both Poland and Germany are subject to the principle of reciprocity in the recognition and enforcement of court judgments of both countries. The German court is not in the position to re-litigate this case.
At the end of 2016, the court in Krakow ordered the German television station ZDF to publish an apology on its main website and keep it posted for a month. Although the station did publish the apology, it did it in the form of a discrete link at the bottom of the page, redirecting the user to a page located elsewhere, which - according to Lech Obara - does not satisfy the court order.
Attorney Obara told IAR Radio that in the ZDF objections, which comprise tens of pages, the German side also raised the issue of social actions such as a mobile billboard informing about the fact that it was Germany that built and operated death camps in occupied Poland during World War II, as well as the online campaign #GermanDeathCamps, which consisted of adding comments to the ZDF television webside emphasizing German responsibility for the death camps.
Source: Radio Information Agency (IAR) / jl / dyd, 24 February 2017
Translation: KK
Photo: newsweb.pl
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