From Otto v. Chicago Public Media, Inc., decided Friday by the Appellate Court of Illinois, in an opinion by Justice Mathias Delort, joined by Justices Freddrenna Lyle and David Navarro:
The factual allegations of the complaint, which we take as true for the purposes of this appeal, are straightforward. Plaintiffs alleged that in 2021, defendant Neil Steinberg wrote an article published in the Chicago Sun-Times. The piece contrasts Black History Month with recent Polish governmental censorship of certain historical perspectives of atrocities committed against Jews in Poland in World War II. The key language in the article at issue in this appeal reads:
"Poland has a long history of anti-Semitism. It was anti-Semitic before World War II…. During the war, while there was certainly heroism — the unprepared Polish Army did charge German tanks on horseback — there was widespread collaboration in the form of killing off Jews, including my grandfather's entire family and his brother Zalman. The above paragraph is true, and the whole truth is far worse. Poles were killing Jews after the war, out of habit, when they tried to return to their villages."
In response to this piece, plaintiffs filed a two-count complaint which contained detailed factual allegations of brave and valiant acts taken by Poles to fight against Nazi Germany and prevent the genocide of Jews in World War II. Count I was a claim for defamation per se, focusing on this sentence: "[P]oles were killing Jews after the war, out of habit, when they tried to return to their villages."
The plaintiffs alleged that they lived in Poland during World War II and did not take part in any atrocities against Jews. In fact, they claimed, they witnessed Poles taking heroic actions to help Jews during that time. Accordingly, they contend, Steinberg's article defamed them in their roles as Polish nationals living in Poland during the relevant time period. The second count was a claim of false light based on the same operative facts….
