A Hamburg court on Thursday largely upheld a SPIEGEL report on the Collien Fernandes case, ruling that the March 19 article was overwhelmingly lawful and appropriate. The Pressekammer ordered only a narrow correction to one passage dealing with procedural details in a Spanish investigative proceeding against Christian Ulmen.
The decision leaves intact the core of the reporting, which centered on allegations that Ulmen, Fernandes’ ex-husband, was involved in suspected digital violence and physical assaults. SPIEGEL published the piece under the online headline “Du hast mich virtuell vergewaltigt” and the print headline “Entblößt im Netz.”
The court found that the report’s account of suspected deepfakes was lawfully disseminated and said there was the necessary minimum of evidence to support the allegation that Ulmen had distributed deepfake videos created by third parties showing his former wife. It also said the piece was not prejudicial and did not amount to unlawful public shaming.
According to the report, Fernandes had filed a complaint against Ulmen in Spain. It also said he allegedly created deceptively real-looking fake profiles of her on social media and used them to contact hundreds of men, posing as Fernandes in chats and conversations with sexual content. The article further said he allegedly sent erotic photos and videos that appeared to show her.
Ulmen and his lawyers did not dispute those accusations in court. That mattered because the press-law fight before the Hamburg Pressekammer was not about whether the allegations existed in the article, but about whether publishing them crossed the legal line.
The Berlin law firm Schertz Bergmann has represented Ulmen since the article appeared. His lawyers announced shortly afterward that they would take press-law action, and about two weeks later they filed at the Hamburg Regional Court. On Thursday, the court rejected the broad thrust of that challenge, leaving SPIEGEL with only a slight change to the one disputed reference to the Spanish proceeding.
The ruling is a clear win for the publication on the central claims and a setback for Ulmen’s attempt to block them. Ulmen can still pursue legal remedies, and SPIEGEL said it would challenge the injunction tied to the passage about the court proceeding in Spain.
