Dumpen gross defamation judgment
On 6 February 2026, Gothenburg District Court convicted Dumpen’s responsible publisher of the freedom-of-expression offence of gross defamation. A jury and the court found that the publication, including the private person’s name and image, was defamatory and that identifying publication was not defensible.
The court emphasized that attempted sexual contact with children is an important social issue to report on. It nevertheless held that this did not make it defensible to identify an otherwise publicly unknown person in the publication at issue.
The judgment shows that a publication certificate changes the responsibility and procedure for publication offences; it does not immunize the responsible publisher from defamation law. Both sides appealed, so the district-court result was not final as of July 2026.