GERMANY: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has won a partial victory in a court battle to prevent a German newspaper from repeating rumours that he is having an affair.
A Berlin district court yesterday ruled that the Märkische Oderzeitung regional newspaper was wrong to print the allegations as it breached Mr Schröder's right to privacy. "The reports go into [Mr Schröder's] private sphere and there is no public interest in the spreading of rumours," said Mr Michael Mauck, the presiding judge.
However, the case will have to be heard a second time because of a procedural error by Mr Schröder's lawyer. That could prove to be an embarrassing mistake: lawyers for the Märkische Oderzeitung said that in a second trial they may call Mr Schröder's wife as a witness.
The legal wrangle began last month when several regional newspapers printed allegations circulating in Berlin for months, that the chancellor was having an affair with a well-known German television journalist, something Mr Schröder denies.
The story was picked up by Britain's Mail on Sunday and the chancellor's lawyer, Mr Nesselhauf, said yesterday that Mr Schröder was considering taking a case.
The Mail has so far refused to back down: last Sunday, the newspaper shrugged off an injunction obtained by Mr Schröder's lawyers in a Hamburg court and printed the allegations again.
Mr Schröder's decision to take legal action against the rumours is seen as a defensive move to serve as a warning to other newspapers, but has only drawn more attention to a story that interests few ordinary Germans.
Ms Doris Schröder-Kopf, the chancellor's fourth wife and a former tabloid journalist, said last week the rumours had no basis. She said it would be difficult as chancellor to have an affair when his every move is accounted for by bodyguards.
The case has shown the high level of privacy enjoyed by German politicians.
"Even a politician who isn't exactly media shy doesn't have to take everything," said the presiding judge yesterday.
Despite robust laws to protect the privacy of public figures, German politicians lament the days of the Bonn parliament, where discretion was the order of the day.