Facts
On 13 April 1995, an article entitled "N.H., a five-star slate" was published in the magazine "Z." belonging to company R. AG. This article contained, in particular, allegations that the hotel was managed by businessman N. or one of his companies, that it was generating losses, and that the management was dumping rooms at low prices, with luxury hotels showing a low occupancy rate.
After [R. AG] contested H. AG's right to a response, but agreed to publish the text as a letter to the editor, [H. AG] filed a request with the single judge of the summary proceedings of the district of Bülach, demanding that [R. AG] be required to publish a response. [H. AG] attached to its request a modified version of the response text, which had not been submitted to R. AG. The judge rejected the request.
The Cantonal Court (Civil Chamber II) of the canton of Zurich partially upheld H. AG's appeal, reduced the text of the response filed with the request, and ordered its publication in the magazine "Z."
[R. AG] appealed against this decision to the Federal Tribunal.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal considers that R. AG's behaviour, which declared itself ready to publish the response text only as a letter to the editor, must be equated to a refusal of the right of reply. When the media company concerned refuses the right of reply, the applicant may submit with its request a response text modified from the version initially submitted, without having to submit it…