Defamation of character

Court duel: Ibiza maker sues ORF foundation council

ORF Board of Trustees member Peter Westenthaler and Ibiza filmmaker Julian Hessenthaler have clashed in court. It's about defamation.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/YouTube UnDschuldig / Roland Schlager Picturedesk)

Peter Westenthaler referred to him on krone.tv as a "criminal drug dealer" - the Ibiza exposer Julian Hessenthaler filed a private lawsuit against the blue ORF Board of Trustees. The trial will take place on Wednesday. It is about defamation and damage to credit.

"Simmering against Kapfenberg, that's what I call brutality" - the legendary quote by the great Austrian satirist Helmut Qualtinger can also be applied to this dispute. Because on Wednesday, the eloquent blue ORF board member Peter Westenthaler and Ibiza filmmaker Julian Hessenthaler will face off in Vienna's regional court. It's about defamation.

The background: filmmaker Hessenthaler, Strache's trapper in a bugged villa on the Spanish party island, was a guest on the now canceled ORF discussion show "Im Zentrum". On "Spitzelgrüße aus Wien - die verratene Republik", the Ibiza detective was allowed to chat with the head of the Procurator Fiscal's Office, Wolfgang Peschorn, about the consequences of the explosive Egisto Ott espionage affair.

"Criminal drug dealer" invited to the ORF
The counterattack from FPÖ Foundation Councillor Peter Westenthaler was not long in coming. On krone.tv, the blue grandee railed that the maker of the Ibiza video was a "criminal drug dealer".

Hessenthaler saw the comments as defamatory or damaging to his credit as well as conveying the accusation of a judicially dismissed act - and filed a private lawsuit.

The Ibiza filmmaker found Westenthaler's statements surprising "in view of his history". Now comes the legal aftermath.