German news media company Apollo News has filed a lawsuit seeking answers from the Interior Ministry regarding the raid on a conservative magazine publisher’s home on Tuesday following the ban on his publication.
Masked police raided Compact magazine founder and editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässers’s home around 6 a.m. on Tuesday with orders to “search and seize.” Just minutes later, mainstream media outlets published the story—along with pictures of Elsässer opening the door in his bathrobe.
How news media could have photographers present at Elsässer’s house before police knocked on his door, as well as entire articles ready to publish, is a question Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has refused to respond to, Apollo News said on Thursday.
Her ministry responded late to our press inquiry and then merely referred to a press release. Upon further inquiry, they did not respond at all.
Disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons is a crime, Apollo News points out, and says “the media coverage appeared orchestrated.” The news outlet’s inquiry about whether an investigation would be launched into alleged cooperation between Faeser’s interior ministry and the press was also left unanswered, as were subsequent questions about whether the media presence amounted to an intrusion into Elsässer’s privacy.
The Compact publisher has not only lost his publication but is also barred from starting another one. However, the scope of this professional ban remains unclear and is another issue on which the Interior Ministry has refused to provide answers. Additionally, the ministry has not clarified how donors to the publication may have been impacted by the search-and-seizure raids conducted on Tuesday.
Apollo News on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court of Berlin, saying:
It appears that the ministry of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has entrenched itself in a strict refusal to respond. However, journalists have a legal right to information from authorities, and we demand answers to our questions!
As we reported, the Interior Ministry, led by Social Democrat Nancy Faeser, banned the Compact magazine on Tuesday, July 16th, for “inciting hatred” and “aggressively propagating the toppling of the political order.” Elsässer says the move to ban the anti-establishment publication without any legal grounds is a blow against press freedom, and that the government—not he—is the real enemy of the democratic order. Constitutional law experts also consider the ban an attack on the freedom of the press and Hans-Georg Maaßen, former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) chief, said Faeser “does not protect our constitution, but is a threat to our free democratic basic order.”
