{"id":8552,"date":"2026-06-24T00:18:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=8552"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:18:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:18:04","slug":"ulmen-wins-court-case-against-spiegel-over-digital-rape-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/ulmen-wins-court-case-against-spiegel-over-digital-rape-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Ulmen wins court case against ‘Spiegel’ over ‘digital rape’ term"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hamburg Higher Regional Court ruled on Tuesday that Der Spiegel must cease giving the impression that Christian Ulmen<\/strong> created and distributed fake AI-generated pornographic material featuring the face of his ex-wife, Collien Fernandes<\/strong>, according to Junge Freiheit<\/em>. The court found that the magazine lacked even a minimum evidentiary basis for such serious allegations.<\/p>\n

In its emergency injunction, the Hamburg court also barred Der Spiegel from reproducing quotes from a private email the 50-year-old actor sent to his criminal defense attorney. The court ruled that such statements touched upon the most protected inner sphere of privacy. The magazine is, however, permitted to continue reporting that Fernandes has made accusations of physical violence against Ulmen.<\/p>\n

The law firm Schertz-Bergmann<\/strong>, which represents Ulmen, called the ruling particularly significant. In a press statement, the firm noted that the suspicion raised by Der Spiegel had resulted in disproportionate, nearly hysterical follow-up reporting across all media outlets and an undifferentiated public discussion. The Potsdam prosecutor’s office is currently investigating the comedian on allegations of domestic violence. The law firm expressed hope that the court decision would contribute to a more objective public debate and end the massive prejudgment of their client.<\/p>\n

Political Intervention Following Allegations<\/h2>\n

Ulmen had already filed a lawsuit against Der Spiegel in Hamburg Regional Court in April. That court ruled in May, however, that the magazine’s reporting on the deepfake suspicions was legally permissible. Der Spiegel had been the first outlet to report on the accusations in mid-March. Fernandes accuses Ulmen not only of creating the AI videos but also of creating fake profiles in her name for years to contact other men. In some instances, she alleges, he impersonated her during phone conversations and engaged in sexual discussions.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the affair became public, Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig<\/strong> of the SPD announced plans to toughen criminal laws to combat sexualized deepfakes created without consent and what she termed digital sexual violence. Numerous female politicians, including SPD leader B\u00e4rbel Bas<\/strong> and former Green Party co-chair Ricarda Lang<\/strong>, demanded stricter laws against such use of artificial intelligence. Several Christian Democratic Union politicians, including Schleswig-Holstein Minister President Daniel G\u00fcnther<\/strong>, called for the introduction of mandatory real-name requirements for internet use.<\/p>\n

The case highlights how unverified media allegations can trigger political demands for sweeping new restrictions on speech and online activity, even before criminal proceedings have reached any conclusion.<\/p>\n

With information from Junge Freiheit<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A German court banned Der Spiegel from publishing allegations that actor Christian Ulmen created deepfake pornography of his ex-wife, citing lack of evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":8551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[7937,7938,7940,7939,25,5313,6992],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-8552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-christian-ulmen","tag-collien-fernandes","tag-deepfake","tag-der-spiegel","tag-germany","tag-hamburg","tag-media-law","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8553,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions\/8553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8552"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=8552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}