Berlin’s public prosecutor’s office has launched a criminal investigation against Nius editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt on suspicion of incitement to hatred.The prosecution said that no house search has taken place, and the investigation remains ongoing.
The case concerns a post he published on X—formerly Twitter—in April, in which he commented on a Bild newspaper report alleging that two police officers from Oberhausen were involved in cocaine trafficking.
Reichelt wrote that the police were being “infiltrated” and would be “Arab-dominated in ten years” if efforts continued to make the force “more diverse.”
Reichelt said his remarks referred to a ZDF documentary about the infiltration of police structures by criminal clans, and that as a journalist he had often spoken with both police officers and members of large families. He rejected the allegations, stating
It is absurd that I am now being prosecuted for naming such developments.
Reichelt also told Die Welt that without freedom of expression, “all other fundamental rights are worthless.”
Describing the case as “intimidation,” he claimed that the state had repeatedly tried to silence him. “It is all just terrifying,” he wrote on X.
The development follows a similar investigation against media scholar Norbert Bolz, who is also accused of hate speech after posting “Germany awake” on X—a phrase authorities regard as a Nazi slogan. Bolz said the post was intended ironically.
