On Thursday morning, the verdict in the Lunghi trial was delivered in court, with former RTL journalist Marc Thoma and former freelance journalist Sophie Schram ordered to pay a fine of €1,000 each. The civil party in the defamation case, Enrico Lunghi, former Mudam director, will receive the symbolic sum of one euro in compensation.
Former RTL CEO Alain Berwick and RTL content director Steve Schmit were both acquitted of all charged, according to public prosecutor’s office spokesman, Henri Eippers.
Thoma’s lawyer, Daniel Baulisch, told RTL his client intended to appeal the ruling in early January, following the justification of the verdict. Schram has also indicated her intention to appeal the sentencing.
In October 2016, RTL journalist Sophie Schram interviewed the then director of the Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (MUDAM), Enrico Lunghi, for the programme Den Nol op de Kapp. When Schram asked Lunghi why he refused to exhibit paintings by a certain Luxembourgish artist, the director lost his cool. The footage broadcast on TV showed Lunghi pacing back and forth before grabbing Schram by the wrist in which she held her microphone and declaring “Seriously, if you broadcast this, I will never talk to you again.”
However, it was later revealed that the footage had been edited in a questionable manner. The edited version omitted both the fact that Schram had repeatedly asked the same question and that the interview actually continued for several minutes after the incident. The original footage, which was eventually made public, even showed that Lunghi had apologised for his behaviour. It also revealed that Lunghi and Schram were not strangers but had known each other for a long time.
The affair had significant fallout, leading to the resignation of Enrico Lunghi as MUDAM director and Alain Berwick as director general of RTL. Berwick as well as the then head of programming Steve Schmit, the creator of the original report, Marc Thoma, and Schram have been sued for slander, defamation, and involuntary bodily injury in the form of “mental health problems” by Lunghi.
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