Holocaust denier loses German case against Swedish TV
BERLIN (Reuters) - A traditionalist bishop who denies the scale of the Holocaust and is the subject of a row over his rehabilitation by the pope failed in a bid on Monday to get an injunction from a German court on the broadcasting of his views.
Richard Williamson had sought to stop Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television AB from distributing the interview, in which he denies the extent of the Holocaust, on the Internet or to other media, said the court in a statement.
"The court rejected the application from Bishop Williamson ...there are no valid infringements of his rights," said the Nuremberg-Fuerth court in southern Germany.
Williamson had conducted the interview with Sveriges Television in Zaitzkofen in southern Germany in November last year and claimed he had not been informed that part of the interview would be released on the Internet or by other media.
The court, however, said Williamson had not expressly withheld permission for the interview to be distributed on the Internet.
"Without this kind of objection, the broadcaster could assume the Catholic bishop was in agreement with distribution via other media," said the court.
Pope Benedict angered Jewish leaders and some Catholics last month when he decided to lift the excommunication of Williamson and three other bishops who belong to an ultra-traditionalist group called the Society of St Pius X.
Williamson says that no more than 300,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust and that there were no gas chambers.
The Nazis killed six million European Jews between their accession to power in 1933 and the defeat of Germany in 1945. Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany.
Williamson, who was on Sunday removed as the head of an Argentine seminary, is also being investigated by state prosecutors in the southern German city of Regensburg for incitement linked to his Holocaust denial.
The Vatican has ordered Williamson to publicly recant his position, but Germany's Der Spiegel magazine at the weekend quoted Williamson as saying he had to review historical evidence on the Holocaust before considering an apology to Jews.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers)
