A German court of justice metes out Injustice for a Gazan journalist

Germany’s largest-selling tabloid, Bild, exploited an Alice in Wonderland (not to say Kafkaesque) legal technicality to successfully defend its smearing of the Palestinian photojournalist, Anas Zayed Fteiha, one of the few journalists still working in Gaza. Fteiha accused Bild’s publisher – the mighty Axel Springer media corporation – of violating his constitutional rights by accusing him of being a Hamas propogandist and ‘staging’ a scene at a food distribution point. This allegation was false, as shown through an investigation conducted  by Bild’s main rival, Spiegel.

So how did Bild win against a Gazan journalist even though he was right and they were wrong?  The Frankfurt Court dismissed Fteiha’s claim on the Catch-22 grounds that his lawyer had not been able to provide a signed power of attorney to his lawyer.  They did acknowledge but took no account of the fact that this ‘posed an exceptional challenge’ ie since Fteiha was still in the infrastructure void that is Gaza.  Despite these clear constraints, the court said that it ‘did not justify waiving procedural requirements,,,”. To add insult to injury, the court awarded costs to the media giant.