Constitutional Court opens way to higher compensation for former first lady Havlová over false article

The Constitutional Court has opened the way for actress and former first lady Dagmar Havlová to get higher compensation for a false article published in 2012 in the magazine Pestrý svět, which claimed that Mrs. Havlová had had an affair while her husband, former president Václav Havel, was dying. Mrs. Havlová had demanded 5 million crowns from the publishing house Bauer Media, and was previously awarded 1.2 million.

In Tuesday’s ruling, the Constitutional Court agreed that it is necessary to take into account the sanctioning and preventive function of any monies awarded in such cases, to warn that publishing defamatory or false material should not be profitable for publishers. Mrs. Havlová’s lawyer František Vyskočil welcomed the ruling as logical and fair. "It also gives instructions to other courts on how to proceed against the truly particularly heinous interference of tabloid media in personality rights," he told journalists.