Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People’s Party) has decided to take legal action against Roger Buch, a recognized expert and research lecturer at the Danish School of Media and Journalism. The conflict arose after Buch publicly criticized the party’s use of EU funding for political ads, which he believes may be illegal. Roger Buch told B.T. that he feels threatened by Danish People’s Party’s lead candidate for the EU elections, Anders Vistisen. After expressing his criticism in the media, Buch received emails from Vistisen’s lawyer, Carlo Siebert. The lawyer warns that the matter could be taken to court if necessary, which Buch describes as “shocking.” “I have been involved in thousands of stories over 30 years and have never experienced anything like this. Before an article is even published, or before Vistisen knows what I have said, I receive intimidating emails accusing me of defamation and slander. I see it as a clear threat,” says Roger Buch to B.T.
The dispute revolves around whether Danish People’s Party has violated the rules for using EU funding by using the money for ads that promote the party’s political agenda. According to EU regulations, ads funded with EU money should clearly identify the party’s parliamentary group. Danish People’s Party has followed this procedure in several of Anders Vistisen’s Facebook ads. Roger Buch has reviewed over 50 of these ads and believes that several of them may be in violation of the rules. However, Danish People’s Party disagrees with this assessment and has tried to inform Buch of what they see as errors in his conclusions. “We could see that Berlingske and Roger Buch were about to publish a story with a number of factually incorrect information. Therefore, I politely asked my lawyer to make Roger Buch aware of the mistakes in their story,” writes Danish People’s Party’s press chief in an email to B.T. Roger Buch insists that the lawyer’s communication was not polite, but rather a threat of a lawsuit.