Tuesday, January 04, 2022
Politician sexist offended
Tichy has to pay Chebli compensation for pain and suffering
In an article in the monthly “Tichy’s Insight”, Sawsan Chebli is insulted in a misogynistic manner. The Berlin SPD politician does not put up with that. First, she obtained a cease and desist from the publicist Tichy, and now she is celebrating another victory in court.
After misogynist statements about her in a magazine, the Berlin SPD politician Sawsan Chebli won compensation for pain and suffering. The Berlin Regional Court ruled that the 43-year-old’s journalist Roland Tichy had to pay 10,000 euros, as Chebli’s lawyer Christian Schertz and a court spokesman agreed. Tichys Verlag has not yet commented on the judgment and possible further action.
In a column in the monthly “Tichy’s Insight”, an author wrote about Chebli’s candidacy for the Bundestag, using a sexist formulation. The article published in September 2020 caused a stir nationwide because of this choice of words. Various personalities publicly showed their solidarity with Chebli, who was State Secretary for Civic Commitment and International Affairs in the Berlin Senate Chancellery until December 2021. The then state minister for digital in the federal government, Dorothee Bär, terminated her membership in the Ludwig-Erhard-Stiftung in protest against Tichy. A little later, Tichy gave up the chairmanship of the foundation.
“Sexism is not without consequences”
In earlier proceedings, Chebli had already obtained a cease and desist from Tichy. “It was important to me to set an example here as well and to show that sexism must never be normal and that it does not remain without consequences,” she said of the regional court’s new ruling on December 16.
Her lawyer Schertz said: “It is to be welcomed that the German judiciary is making it clear that it is not only countering brutalization, hatred and defamation with injunctive relief, but also with monetary compensation.” The court had emphasized that the statements in the contribution were a violation of human dignity and a serious violation of personal rights. The court spokesman gave no further details. The written grounds for the judgment are not yet available. An appeal to the higher court against the judgment is possible.