The managing director of Correctiv, the self-proclaimed “independent investigative journalism network” that recently ran a disinformation piece against the AfD—falsely accusing the party of planning to deport millions of Germans with migrant backgrounds—met with officials from the federal government on numerous occasions, apparently to “exchange ideas” on what coverage is desirable.
Correctiv’s false reporting—deliberate or not—on what has come to be known as the “Potsdam Meeting” precipitated a wave of anti-AfD demonstrations across Germany and prompted calls for the left-liberal traffic coalition to initiate banning proceedings against the increasingly popular party.
A government response to an inquiry submitted by AfD MP Leif-Erik Holm on January 31st, 2024, revealed that Correctiv managing director David Schraven had multiple meetings with government representatives in the last few years, adding to the impression that the media outlet is little more than an anti-AfD attack dog for Germany’s establishment.
Before the government’s response to the AfD MP’s information request, Berliner Zeitung reported two weeks ago that Schraven had met in secret with several representatives from the federal government under former Chancellor Angela Merkel in June 2020 for an “exchange of ideas” at the Ministry of the Interior.
Ironically, the topic of discussion between government officials and the managing director Correctiv was ‘disinformation’—in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning any information that ran counter to what, at the time, was defined by the state as “scientific truth.”
Big tech platforms like Facebook and YouTube as well as the Amadeu Antonio Foundation—a German foundation that claims to fight against “far-right wing parties” also participated in the meeting. Those at the meeting agreed that a “broad, multilayered and whole-of-society approach was required to combat disinformation,” according to a report from the German news portal NiUS.
The government’s reply to MP Holm’s inquiry asking when and why representatives of federal ministries and authorities had met with the Correctiv journalists in recent years, has revealed that staff from the Soros-backed, state-financed outlet had met with government officials on two separate occasions in 2022.
The first meeting, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in his response to Holm’s inquiry, took place between Schraven, and “other fact checkers” on July 15th, 2022, where, again, the topic of “disinformation” was discussed.
Schraven then met with the SPD-affiliated consultant and advisor Andreas Görgen, who serves as the secretary general of the German Federal Ministry for Culture and the Media, along with the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media Claudia Roth (Greens), on November 28th, 2022. A spokeswoman for the Minister of State for Culture confirmed to Berliner Zeitung that the meeting pertained to programs that could “support” Russian journalists in exile.
“The truth always comes to light,” AfD MEP Joachim Kuhs told The European Conservative, calling the meetings between officials from the federal government and Schraven a “big political scandal”:
The government must take a step back because they actively persecute the opposition and they work together with the media, suppressing the truth and free speech. This whole Potsdam story is crumbling, and it’s harming the government—not AfD.
AfD MP and the party’s foreign policy spokesman Petr Bystron told The European Conservative:
Germany’s traffic light government is spending hundreds of millions of euros on a variety of NGOs whose express purpose is to oppress the opposition. Correctiv is just one of them. It’s clear, however, that Correctiv works alongside Amadeu Antonio Foundation, led by former Stasi secret police collaborator Anetta Kahane, who is one of the most toxic extremists. These organizations are packed with legitimate extremists.
