The gallery owner Johann König is opening a new gallery next month at the Bergson Art Power Plant in Aubing near Munich. This brings attention because König is one of the stars in the industry. But in 2019, an anonymous “call against Johann König” appeared on Facebook, accusing the gallery owner of exploiting his position of power over female artists. König filed a complaint at the time and always rejected the anonymous allegations as “untrue and defamatory”. Three years later the reported Time about allegations against König, the gallery owner also sued against the weekly newspaper’s depictions – and was partially successful. According to a ruling by the Hamburg Higher Regional Court, more than a quarter of the text had to be removed. König also contacted the Press Council. He throws the Time several violations of the press code. The suspicion reporting of the Time is inadmissible, it violates the rules of journalistic due diligence and his privacy.
Upon request, the German Press Council confirmed that it had assessed König’s complaint as “unfounded”. First he had Mirror reported about it. According to the Press Council, this is the case Time-Text about permissible suspicious reporting within the meaning of paragraphs 2 and 13 of the Press Code. The decision also states that there is “a legitimate interest of the public” in being informed about the allegations against König, even if they did not lead to criminal proceedings; They are considered to be “significant to the public” because they involve allegations of possible systematic abuse of power. König was given sufficient opportunity to comment, but this constituted a prejudgment Time-Reporting does not represent. The Press Council also rejected the allegations of violation of privacy, as Johann König is “nationally and internationally known beyond the art scene and is present in the media”.