Herbert F. (84) has been in a Taliban dungeon in Kabul for six months: the right-wing extremist blogger from Vienna had traveled to the Islamist country in the Hindu Kush despite warnings. He had wanted to show that, contrary to the opinion of experts, Afghanistan was a safe country of origin and that refugees could be deported there without hesitation - and proved the exact opposite.
The actual article about right to privacy in relation to media reporting is §7 of the Mediengesetz (literally “Media law”): https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/NormDokument.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=10000719&Artikel=&Paragraf=7&Anlage=&Uebergangsrecht=
That is the official and authoritative source, but it’s also German and Legalese (and the nuance is definitely also in the application and comments, slightly similar to “case law” in common law countries, but not quite the same), so I doubt it’s of much use. https://voez.at/politik-recht/rechtsinformationen/persoenlichkeitsrechte/ (or a Google translate version of it) can probably give you a better idea (that’s a non-official site by the umrella organization of Austrian news papers).
It’s also pretty important to note that the “Mediengesetz” doesn’t restrict your average private citizen in what they can say: this is specifically about organization publishing media of any kind (news papers, books, …).
The article linked to is from an Austrian outlet, so Austrian laws and customs would apply.
Other outlets that report on the same story are obviously not bound by Austrian law and I think I saw at least one “article” (it was really just a very terrible summary of some other source) that used the full name.
Even letters to the editor?
I don’t quite understand what you’re asking for. What about those letters?
Also: I suspect that if I understood I probably couldn’t give you an answer, because I’m not well-versed enough in all the details to be able to go into the nitty-gritty. The majority of my understanding is from seeing the effects of the law in news papers (via redactions and corrections) and occasionally reading up on how it works.
Thanks for this, very detailed.
Not be crass, but does he plan to sue the paper or who actually enforces that if you are correct? Who has standing here?
I suspect he would like nothing more than this to be as public as possible, so I don’t think he will sue. Since my interest in this only really extends as far as “haha, that guy” I’m also not going to actively look into it ;-)
I don’t think “standing” exists as such in civil law countries (as most of Europe), that is mostly a common law term.
But AFAIK the only one who can sue for this are the “injured parties”, i.e. those about which untrue or defamatory things were said or who’s identity was revealed without proper consideration of the pros/cons (because the right to anonymity in this is far from absolute).