The PR office of PIK, the research institute in Germany where Stefan Rahmstorf is employed, has responded to
my post last week on the court case between Rahmstorf and a journalist. PIK sends this email, which they say is on-the-record:
Dear Dr. Pielke,
it has been brought to our attention that on your weblog http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2011/12/journalist-fights-back-and-wins.html you claim that Prof. Rahmstorf "was convicted of defaming a journalist". I am sorry to say that this statement is not correct.
What in fact happened is that a journalist, Irene Meichsner, applied for a court injunction which was granted in part by the court last February. It has been a civil lawsuit, of course, and the court simply decided that Stefan Rahmstorf should not repeat two sentences he wrote in his blog months before that (and which already had been removed by him from the blog because the journalist asked him to do so). In German law, defamation would mean something very different.
Could you be so kind to correct this as soon as possible?
Kind regards,
Jonas Viering
(PIK PR-officer)
In response I have updated my post. The opening sentence originally said:
In Germany, there is news today (here) about a prominent climate scientist who earlier this year was convicted of defaming a journalist, Irene Meichsner.
I have revised it as follows:
In Germany, there is news today (here) about a prominent climate scientist who earlier this year saw a court rule against him and in favor of a journalist, Irene Meichsner. The basis for the lawsuit was what one observer of the German media calls "personal defamation" by Rahmstorf against the journalist.
I have noted this update at the top of the post.
