No Reporting without bodyguard: Attacks on media and journalists in the German State of Thuringia

A snack bar in a small town in the East German province, summer 2024: The counter facing the street displays an old, discarded television. The words “I got kicked out because I’m lying” are handwritten on the screen in white felt-tip pen. Next to it is a picture of the famous German cartoon character Werner with a variation of his most famous quote: “Ampel [current center-left government, editor’s note]? Get rid of that shit.” The bar decoration in such an ordinary, supposedly non-political place, is characteristic of todays mood in rural areas of eastern Germany: the political elite, the establishment are depicted as the enemy – and with it the established media, which is perceived as a corrupt propaganda machine to give undeserved legitimacy to supposedly anti-citizen politics. Since the Islamophobic Pediga protests from 2014 onwards, journalists have been among the most important targets of the growing far right, who continue to drive this enmity in ever new cycles: The arrival of refugees in 2015, the allegedly superfluous corona measures, the climate policy of the center-left government since 2021, the war in Ukraine and, or the rise in crimes committed by people with a migration background. The failure of the “old parties” is always invoked and the media is always identified as being partly to blame for the alleged destruction of Germany.

The federal state of Thuringia is a stronghold of the far right AfD as well as of attacks againts journalists. For this case study, TAZ extensively spoke to media professionals and experts in Thuringia to trace the mechanisms and dynamics behind the increasing hostility towards the press in the context of the state elections in the federal state. We can show that the intensified attacks in Thuringia in the run-up to the state election in September 2024 are forcing media professionals who work according to journalistic standards onto the defensive, thus giving disinformation actors increasing space, reach and influence.

The established media as the enemy is one of the far right AfD’s most important election campaign themes. And the stronger the party becomes, the more attacks on journalists increase – by the party itself, but also by numerous actors, inspired by a general social climate in which journalists are discredited. The AfD sets the tone, it is echoed in its social environment – and it is often the neo-Nazi scene that violently strikes in response. Today, it is common practice that journalists report from certain rallyes and events in East Germany with either private securities or have police officers personally protecting them.

The situation has become more tense in the months before the state elections in Thuringia in September 2024. The nationally influential AfD state leader Björn Höcke already set the tone at their state party conference in November 2023 in preparation for these elections. Among other things, Höcke announced his intention to leave the federal public broadcasting system if he was elected prime minister of Thuringia.[1] Until recently, it was completely unthinkable in Germany that a leading opposition representative would openly attack the for decades well-respected[2] public broadcasters in such way. Höckes announcement made it clear how pronounced the anti-journalist sentiment stirred up by the AfD already is and how much further the AfD seeks to gain political capital from this issue.

Such political demands, marking critical journalism as a target, are today clearly correlated with an increase in attacks. The European Center for Press & Media Freedom[3] in Leipzig has been recording a steady increase in general attacks on media professionals in Germany for years. The ECPMF registered[4] 15 such attacks in 2019, 172 in 2021 and 80 in the first half of this year.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) only counts[5] acts of violence and came up with a figure of 41 for 2023 – more than three times as many as in 2019. The most common attacks in 2023 were kicks and punches, including with objects such as torches or drumsticks. These were counted as attacks if they actually hit journalists’ bodies or equipment. Media representatives were pulled to the ground, pelted with sand and stones or smeared with faeces.
According to RSF, the majority of the attacks took place in the conspiracy ideology or extreme right-wing scene. The two have merged seamlessly since the pandemic changed German protest culture. They are united “among other things by their hatred of the so-called lying press and their criticism of democratic processes”, according to RSF.

The majority has not[6] lost trust in establshied media, however, an increasing number of people today gets their information from far-right so-called alternative media,[7] which often bet on pro-Russian, conspiracy ideology, racist content and disinformation. They are sympathetic to the AfD, are gaining a growing reach[8] and, for their part, are doing their utmost to further incite hatred against the competition from established media.

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[1]    https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/thueringen/hoecke-fuenf-punkte-plan-afd-102.html#Medien.

[2]    https://www.zdf.de/zdfunternehmen/medienforschung-studien-122.html

[3]    https://www.ecpmf.eu/

[4]    https://www.ecpmf.eu/monitor/mapping-media-freedom/

[5]    https://www.reporter-ohne-grenzen.de/nahaufnahme/2024

[6]    https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/panorama/medien-vertrauen-studie-universitaet-mainz-100.html

[7]    https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/rechtspopulismus-die-agenda-der-sogenannten-alternativen-medien

[8]    https://libmod.de/wie-die-afd-die-medienwelt-veraendern-will/

“Pegida“ demonstrations and the refugee crisis

The dynamics of today’s attacks on the media in Thuringia have a history of around ten years. It goes back to the start of the Islamophobic Pegida demonstrations in Dresden in autumn 2014, which grew into the largest racist mobilization in Germany since the Second World War shortly after they began. On the tenth Monday in a row, around 17500[1] people gathered in front of Dresden’s Frauenkirche in mid-November 2014 – more than ever before in previous weeks. They joined in with chants of “We are the people” – the battle cry of the peaceful revolution in the GDR in 1989 – and the walls of the nearby famous Residenzschloss echoed the sound. Organizer Lutz Bachmann has positioned himself in the middle of the square next to the statue of King Johann, clamped a construction site spotlight to his lectern and placed a small plastic Christmas tree with neon lights on top. As a warm-up, he hands out „the negative awards of the week“ to the “lying press” whose Pegda reporting he disliked.  “Lying press” is a term coined by the Nazis. Third place: Sächsische Zeitung. Second place: Spiegel TV. First place: RTL. Every time the name of a specific media outlet is mentioned, the crowd boos.

This is how the Pegida demonstrations traditionally began. Later, individual journalists were also personally named, or demonstrated against in front of their editorial offices[2]. “Grab your microphone and get lost! Fuck off, man! Fucking lying media! You’re provoking! Grab your stuff and get lost! Shit, how you have to earn your money, huh? With your lies, man! That’s how you make money, shame on you, you bum!”[3] – Leipzig-based Journalist Arnd Ginzel, for example, has been hearing sentences like this when he reported from Pegida rallyes. And soon reporters were also being punched and kicked. Since that time, camera teams have had to go to filming locations with security guards. ZDF public television camera teams covered the ZDF logo on their broadcasting vans before arring at the rallye.

Since the Pegida demonstrations, there has been an “increase in media criticism in eastern Germany, which has turned into media hostility”[4], says Lucas Munzke, Verdi trade union secretary for media in Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony.

The events of 2015 were a catalyst for this. As refugee numbers soared in the 1990s, the far-right and the major media outlets were singing the same tune. They wrote of the “asylum seeker catastrophe“[5] or practically reprinted the far-right Republican election posters with images of an overcrowded ark on their cover[6]. Many believe that the major media thus paved the way for the pogroms of the time. When the refugees arrived in 2015, however, the tone was initially different. The media supported the welcoming culture. The powerful head of the conservative Bild tabloid, Kai Diekmann, replaced his private profile picture on Twitter with a “Refugees Welcome” logo[7]. For the  far right, this was “treason”. According to them, the then Chancellor Angela Merkel would never have been able to maintain her refugee policy for so long if the media had not supported her. This accusation still has an impact today.

General Brutalization

The attacks on the media have noticeable consequences. Since the Pegida movement began in 2014, the political climate in Thuringia has worsened considerably, say journalists in the region. „There is an increasing brutalization that reaches into the middle of society; it’s no longer just the classic neo-Nazis who can be dangerous,” says Fabian Klaus[8]. The 38-year-old started working as a reporter at the age of 16. Today he reports for the Funke Mediengruppe, which publishes three regional newspapers in Thuringia. Klaus himself has been the victim of several attacks. The coronavirus pandemic has acted as an amplifier, he says. Right-wing extremists often played a central role in the protests against the measures, particularly in the east. They managed to mobilize people from an even larger section of society than with Pegida. „First it was about the refugees, then Covid, then Ukraine, then the climate“, says Sebastian Haak[9]. The freelance journalist is a member of the board of the Thuringian State Press Conference. „The topics are interchangeable.“

AfD and public broadcasting on the defensive

The AfD, founded in 2014, picked up on this mood early on and continues to fuel it to this day. It uses a variety of means to play its part in delegitimizing the media. Sometimes some, sometimes all media are defamed as a „lying press“[10]. Sometimes the press as a whole is excluded from party conferences, sometimes individual journalists are not accredited. This affected the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Spiegel and the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, among others. In August 2024, leading media outlets sueded AfD for exclduing them from their event for the state elections on September 1st.[11]

AfD politicians target individual journalists from the podium at press conferences or AfD events. Verbal attacks on journalists are part of the AfD’s election campaign repertoire. The AfD regional parliamentary group Hochtaunuskreis posted in August 2018: „In revolutions we know of, radio stations and press publishers were stormed at some point and employees were dragged onto the streets. The media representatives in this country should think about this, because when the mood finally changes, it will be too late!“[12]

As in other EU countries, the public broadcasters in particular have been under constant attack and are therefore increasingly on the defensive. By defitnion, public broadcasting is constituted als „remote from the state“ in Germany. The far right questions this. Their most frequent accusations against the public broadcaster include concealing violence and other crimes committed by migrants, exaggerating the climate crisis to allegedly support the Green party or spreading „gender ideology“. For reasons of alleged political correctness, facts would not be reported if it did not suit a supposed red-green mainstream.

In 2018, ARD editor-in-chief Kai Gniffke and ZDF editor-in-chief Peter Frey felt compelled to comment on the accusation of “one-sided” reporting on migration at an AfD podium in Dresden. Pressure also increased on the climate issue. In 2019, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) recorded a new version of the famous children’s song “Meine Oma fährt im Hühnerstall Motorrad” with its children’s choir. This was intended to make a positive reference to the Fridays for Future movement initiated by children and young people. The new version read: “My grandma is an old environmental pig… ”[13] After more than 15,000 critical Facebook comments, it was removed again shortly afterwards. And in a special WDR broadcast[14], the WDR director, Tom Buhrow, apologized “without ifs and buts“[15] for the video and described it as a ’mistake”. Program director Jochen Rausch said that not enough thought had been given to “linguistic subtlety”. There was no similar reaction ever to any other critique on satirical WDR content before.

But apologies and justifications are not enough for the AfD. Its basic electoral party program has long stated: “The compulsory financing of public broadcasting must be abolished immediately and converted into pay television.”[16] The broadcasting contribution is the model for financing public broadcasters in Germany and currently amounts to €18.36 per month per every German household. It is collected by a public agency, which distributes the revenue to ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio. The AfD sees this as “forced financing”, which should be “abolished immediately and converted into pay-TV”. An opt-out regulation should enable citizens to cancel their „subscription“ in full or in part. Reception should be encrypted or password-protected so that only voluntary payers have access. Public service broadcasting would thus become “citizens’ broadcasting” that is “exclusively dependent on its paying viewers and no longer on politics”, as the AfD states. Broadcasting control boards should also be adapted accordingly: instead of being appointed by parliaments, control bodies should be elected by viewers. Only then would “the label ‘remote from the state’ be justified”, according to the AfD. The party has long wanted to de facto dismantle the ÖRR, which is critical of it, in this way.

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[1]    https://taz.de/Muslime-in-Dresden/!5025312/

[2]    https://x.com/MatthiasMeisner/status/759043679193485313

[3]    https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/tag-der-pressefreiheit-pegidas-angriffe-auf-die-presse-100.html

[4]    persönliches Interview

[5]    https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/3750/123.pdf?sequence=1

[6]    https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/index-1991-37.html

[7]    https://www.horizont.net/medien/nachrichten/refugeeswelcome-Bild-setzt-sich-fuer-Fluechtlinge-ein-136118

[8]    persönliches Interview

[9]    persönliches Interview

[10]  https://afd-verbot.de/beweise/63288

[11]  https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article253106822/WELT-wehrt-sich-gegen-Nichtzulassung-zu-Wahlveranstaltung-der-Thueringer-AfD.html

[12]  https://www.fr.de/kultur/warnt-sturm-pressehaeuser-10964702.html

[13]  https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/debatte-um-wdr-lied-umweltsau-ein-witz-wird-zum-kulturkampf-100.html

[14]  https://www.horizont.net/medien/nachrichten/nach-shitstorm-wdr-entschuldigt-sich-in-sondersendung-fuer-umweltsau-lied-179877

[15]  https://www.zeit.de/kultur/film/2020-01/tom-buhrow-wdr-umweltsau-lied-reaktion-intendant

[16]  https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Programm_AfD_Online_.pdf

The attacks against media and media professionals in Thuringia are not primarily individual, clearly definable ones, but rather a deliberately fueled general anti-press sentiment. This is reflected in fundamental attacks on freedom of the press, public service broadcasters, deteriorating working conditions for journalists and, in some cases, violent attacks against individual media professionals.

Threat of withdrawal from the state media treaties

The most important single element of the AfD’s campaign against the media it dislikes is the announcement that if governing the federal states of Thuringia, it would terminate the membership in the federal state media treaties (Medienstaatsverträge). This far-reaching step has accelerated the general hostility towards the media in the state. The AfD has been the strongest force in the polls in Thuringia since 2019.[1] In August 2024, it was polling around 30 percent. All other parties have excluded a coalition with the AfD. However, as several competitors could fail to reach the 5% threshold, the AfD could win an absolute majority of seats in the Erfurt state parliament with just over 40% of votes.

At the state party conference in Pfiffelbach near Weimar in November 2023, state leader Björn Höcke announced exactly what he intended to do if he became prime minister. Under the white chandeliers of the local ballroom, he set out his five-point “immediate program for Thuringia”[2]. Among other things, he promised to cancel the state media treaties.[3] “Yes, that’s what Höcke does,” he shouted into the hall to applause. The party wants to cut the budget of regional broadcaster MDR by 90 percent and finance it through a tax to be paid by media and tech companies. Public broadcasters are too expensive, have too many superfluous programs and engage in government propaganda, Höcke claimed. “Instead, there should be basic broadcasting, perhaps ten percent of what we have now. There will be a basic service, but no longer a compulsory contribution. That will be financed by taxes.”[4]

Legal experts are still arguing about what concrete consequences such a step would really have for MDR’s ability to operate in Thuringia. But the announcement alone is a declaration of war.  According to the broadcaster, the MDR Thüringen radio programs have around 550,000 listeners every day, the TV program MDR Thüringen Journal has around 144,000 viewers every evening and the MDR Thüringen online offering has up to five million views every month.[5]

In a background talk with TAZ, MDR legal director Jens-Ole Schröder tries to appear relaxed about a termination of the State Media Treaty by a possible AfD government in Thuringia. Schröder said that MDR would then continue to exist as a two-state broadcaster – in the states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt – and would of course continue to be able to produce program for the central German region, which includes Thuringia. As Central German Broadcasting, MDR would continue to be receivable in Thuringia in this case. The broadcasting fee would also have to continue to be paid despite the termination. The reason for this is a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2021, which secured the contribution for the time being.

Lawyer Tobias Mast from the Leibniz Institute for Media Research in Hamburg told NDR, that he considers the AfD’s plans to be unconstitutional: “It would be a drastic cut that would be extremely far removed from what the Federal Constitutional Court has now defined as public service broadcasting.”[6] Above all, cutting the budget by 90 percent would not meet the requirements of a basic service, according to Mast. Financing through taxes is also problematic. This would place control over finances directly in the hands of politicians. Broadcasting would no longer be independent: “You can imagine something like what the PiS party has created in Poland, namely a very pro-government broadcaster that does not ask critical questions and fits into the ideological world view of the ruling party.”

In contrast to MDR’s assessment, Tobias Mast expects far-reaching consequences if the state media contracts are terminated: “People living in Thuringia would no longer be obliged to co-finance MDR,” says Mast in an interview with NDR. This would have an impact on public broadcasting as a whole: “If a federal state leaves, a source of funding is missing.” Mast also believes it is likely that MDR will be banned from broadcasting in Thuringia if the contract is terminated.

Meanwhile, the AfD is doing everything it can to make the work of unwelcome media more difficult. Verdi secretary Lucas Munzke recalls[7] that the party tried to exclude the ARD magazine “Monitor” from its state party conference in Pfiffelbach in November at the start of the election campaign due to alleged “crude propaganda”. However, WDR successfully challenged the exclusion in court. In June 2024, the Meiningen Administrative Court sentenced[8] the first AfD district chairman in Germany, Robert Sesselmann, to answer 15 questions for Der Spiegel magazine. Sesselmann had previously refused to do so.

“The AfD’s strategy is: Only the journalists it likes get information,”[9] says Munzke. This has a different quality to the usual blockade attitude of some press spokespersons. Munzke believes that the authorities’ duty to provide information, which is part of the freedom of the press, “would be severely called into question if the AfD came to power”. AfD participation in government in a federal state is currently unrealistic. However, the right to information derived from the Basic Law is enshrined in the state press laws. And the state parliaments can amend these to a certain extent.

Attacks on individual journalists and media

The following overview is not a complete list, but highlights a broad range of attacks on individual journalists that are intended to illustrate the overall situation.

Fabian Klaus

Fabian Klaus, 38, started working as a reporter at the age of 16. Today he reports for the Funke Mediengruppe, which publishes three regional newspapers in Thuringia. Klaus is not someone who pushes himself to the fore; in conversation with TAZ, he repeatedly points out that other colleagues have an even harder time, such as freelance journalists or the people in the local editorial offices. But even if his stories come across as sober, they have a lot to offer. Fabian Klaus has been used to being the focus of right-wing extremists for years. He has been defamed time and again by Gera neo-Nazi Christian Klar, for example, as recently as the beginning of 2024. Klar walked around a right-wing demonstration with a sign showing a photo of Fabian Klaus in convict clothing, as he did at the farmers’ protests with the words “guilty”. “Even when I started in this job in 2002, I was usually where there was something going on, and these were often right-wing extremist events,”[10] says Klaus. For example, at the demonstrations of Thorsten Heise (see → Frettrode paragraph), one of Germany’s best-known militant neo-Nazis, who lives just a few kilometers away from Björn Höcke and is said to be well acquainted with him.

Klaus was most recently the victim of an attack at an AfD rally with national party leader Alice Weidel and Björn Höcke, gathering a crowd of 1.100 in Thuringias capital Erfurt, at the end of April 2023: A demonstration participant attacked Klaus, who was taking photos at the edge of the march. Klaus’ security guard had to fend off the attack. The incident is due to be heard in court in August 2024. Precisely because it is now standard to be accompanied by security at such events, it is not these situations that worry him, says Klaus. “It’s more that I behave differently in my private life, that I no longer necessarily walk through the city alone in the evening, at least not through dark streets.” Those around him are also aware of this and are often more worried than he is. He also takes other precautions: “I prefer to take the car rather than the train to events to get away more quickly.” He feels very well supported by his employer, the Funke media group: “There is a sensitization and awareness up to the highest levels, and really good offers.”

Peter Hagen

The case of Peter Hagen, a reporter for the Ostthüringer Zeitung, became nationally known. On August 20, 2022, he was the victim of an attack at the market festival in Bad Lobenstein – by the mayor Thomas Weigelt. He had stormed towards the journalist while he was filming with a cell phone. Weigelt pushed Hagen in such a way that the reporter fell backwards and a second festival-goer fell to the ground with him. Both were injured. Here is the video of the incident: https://x.com/pnandsoknews/status/1560936698510544897

Hagen has been researching the Reichsbürger scene in the Saale-Orla district for several years. Among others, his focus has been on Heinrich XIII Prince Reuß, who has been in custody since December 2022 on suspicion of being the ringleader of nationwide terrorist organization attempting to overthrow the federal government.[11] A few months before Reuß’ arrest, Hagen was surprised that Prince Reuß had been invited by mayor Weigelt to Bad Lobenstein city council’s reception to “honor deserving citizens”. Hagen wanted to ask what Reuß’s services to the city were in order to invite him. Weigelt did not want to answer these questions before. At the market festival on August 20, 2022, the mayor then stood together with Prince Reuß and the AfD member of state parliament Uwe Thrum. Hagen approached Weigelt with his camera and suddenly stormed at him. “The mayor pushed me backwards with all his might. I no longer had any grip, I just realized that someone was still lying underneath me,”[12] says Hagen.

According to the forensic pathologist Hans-Peter Kinzl, the fall resulted in a superficial skin abrasion and a contusion of the upper arm. The district administration office in the Saale-Orla district temporarily suspended Weigelt from his duties. In addition to the attack on the reporter, the authority cited five other serious breaches of official duty, including defamation of constitutional bodies and financial damage to the town of Bad Lobenstein. The mayor is taking legal action against the suspension.

“I didn’t want to prevent the press from reporting. It was simply three seconds of my life that I deeply regret, that shouldn’t have happened,” says the mayor. He approached the journalist in the heat of the moment and tried to cover the camera with his left hand.

Hagen was attacked again on 16.11.2023.[13] He had reported on an AfD event in Plothen in the Saale-Orla district. As he was leaving the hall, he was first insulted, then beaten and had his headgear pulled off. He informed two police officers who accompanied him into the hall. On his return, however, he could no longer make out the attackers. He therefore decided not to press charges. When he got into his car a short time later, he heard unusual noises as he drove off. When he looked, he noticed screws in all four tires, some of which were countersunk up to their heads. He pressed charges against unknown persons in this matter. “We condemn the attacks on our journalists in the strongest possible terms! Our reporters are being actively prevented from doing their work. These are all attacks on our freedom of the press,” says Christoph Rüth, Managing Director of the Funke Media Group. The constant threats and attacks show what role good journalism plays in a vibrant democracy and how fragile it is in some regions, says Rüth. “We must protect our freedom. This includes protecting the freedom of the press and the ability to disseminate reliable information.”

Fretterode

On April 29, 2018, neo-Nazis Gianluca Bruno and Nordulf Heise attacked two journalists in Fretterode in the Thuringian district of Eichsfeld with knives and baseball bats. The journalists were researching the regional Nazi scene there. The attackers destroyed the tires and windows of the journalists’ car and sprayed irritant gas inside. They inflicted a skull fracture on one of the victims with a heavy wrench. The second journalist suffered a stab wound to his leg. Their camera equipment was stolen. The NPD federal executive and militant neo-Nazi Thorsten Heise lives on a property in Fretterode. The property is used as an event venue and residence for the far right. In September 2022, the Nordhausen district court sentenced the two defendants to a suspended sentence for damage to property and grievous bodily harm and to complete hours of work. The court fell well short of the prosecution’s demand. The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe[14] overturned the Mühlhausen district court’s verdict from September 2022 due to factual and legal errors.

Jana Merkel

The freelance journalist Jana Merkel works for MDR’s political magazines and hosts the ARD podcast “Extrem rechts” (Far Right)[15]. Merkel has been observing the right-wing scene for years, and she also recognizes a change that began around ten years ago. Not just in terms of hatred towards journalists. “I used to like telling people that I was a journalist and I got positive reactions. Today, there is either pity or derogatory remarks.”[16]

In 2016, Merkel’s MDR television team and a ZDF team were attacked with pepper spray at the AfD demonstration in Magdeburg. A security guard, who had already been hired by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk as a precautionary measure, was unable to fend off the attack. He was hit in the face with irritant gas and later had to be treated in hospital. Another editorial employee also suffered eye irritation. “We had to interrupt and break off the shoot. The police immediately provided assistance,”[17] said Merkel. “There were very nice police paramedics who immediately took very good care of our police paramedic, who looked really bad. I was pretty horrified.”
Above all, however, it changed who posed the danger, says Merkel. “What’s different now, and what West German colleagues perhaps sometimes can’t understand, is that it’s no longer visually recognizable who can be dangerous,”[18] she says. Merkel also speaks of an increasing “brutalization”, of a “disinhibition” far into the middle of society. “It’s not just the stereotypical neo-Nazis with combat boots, but average-looking people who are the source of verbal hostility and sometimes even physical attacks.”

MDR-Funkhaus

On January 25, 2024, 500 people blocked the state broadcasting center in Erfurt: registered by two craftsmen, the protesters arrived with around 300 vehicles, including trucks and tractors, their enemy: the “lying press”. „„Von Redakteur bis Sprecher – alles Verbrecher“ (From editor to speaker – all criminals) was written on their banners against the „media agitation“. The demonstrators had brought dolls dressed as convicts, with signs reading “guilty”. It was the first action of its kind at the height of the violent farmers protests at the beginning of the year. The farmers’ associations later distanced themselves. But the day showed how the mood in the country had changed. That morning, Lucas Munzke, trade union secretary at Verdi for media in Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, received calls from the state broadcasting center. “I’m afraid to go out here,” employees told him. The police had a “very careful eye on the scene” and fortunately nothing happened.

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[1]    https://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/landtage/thueringen.htm

[2]    https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/thueringen/hoecke-fuenf-punkte-plan-afd-102.html#Medien.

[3]    https://www.die-medienanstalten.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Rechtsgrundlagen/Gesetze_Staatsvertraege/Medienstaatsvertrag_MStV.pdf

[4]    https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/thueringen/hoecke-fuenf-punkte-plan-afd-102.html#Medien.

[5]    https://www.die-medienanstalten.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Rechtsgrundlagen/Gesetze_Staatsvertraege/Medienstaatsvertrag_MStV.pdf

[6]    https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/zapp/das-ende-von-ard-und-zdf-oder-doku/ndr/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS9hZjlkMzI5My03Yjk4LTQ5NjgtOWI4Yy1lMWFhNmMyNTNjZmY

[7]    persönliches Interview

[8]    https://verwaltungsgerichte.thueringen.de/media/tmmjv_verwaltungsgerichte/VG_Meiningen/Entscheidungen/24-8E-00577-B-U-A.pdf

[9]    persönliches Interview

[10]  personal interview

[11]  https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/bgh-ak4623-untersuchungshaft-reichsbuerger-umsturz-prinz-richterin-tag-x-razzia

[12]  https://www.otz.de/regionen/bad-lobenstein/article239868847/Attacke-auf-Reporter-in-Bad-Lobenstein-Suspendierter-Buergermeister-steht-vor-Gericht.html

[13]  https://www.thueringer-allgemeine.de/article240612748/Angriff-auf-Reporter-bei-AfD-Buergerforum-im-Saale-Orla-Kreis.html#Echobox=1700246463

[14]https://www.bundesgerichtshof.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2024/2024061.html

[15]  https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/sachsen-anhalt/sven-liebich-podcast-extrem-rechts-100.html

[16]  personal interview

[17]  https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/afd-kundgebung-in-magdeburg-pfefferspray-attacke-auf-100.html

[18]  personal interview

Erfurt reporter Sebastian Haak, chairman of the Thuringia state press conference, has been observing attacks at rallies for years. In such situations, attackers are sometimes “disinhibited and the police are often overwhelmed, so it’s relatively easy to lash out. Opportunity makes thieves,” says Haak. The level of physical violence is relatively constant and generally limited to the area surrounding rallies. “As far as I know, there hasn’t been anything in front of a private house or anything like that in Thuringia.” However, Nazi rallies in the past have sometimes deliberately moved past editorial offices.

This is why Ver.di secretary Lucas Munzke speaks of “fear of self-censorship” – studies have now also shown this effect: avoiding certain topics or locations out of fear of attacks. And the more the AfD is able to push back public broadcasting, “the more blind spots there are in rural areas”.

But that is only one level of the problem. Another is the internet, says Sebastian Haak. “There is a permanent bashing of established media on Facebook, where hate and agitation are omnipresent.” In early summer, for example, there was a photo collage of him on Facebook after he reported on an AfD national meeting in Suhl. Based on an advertisement for a dating portal, it read: “Every 11 minutes, a mainstream journalist falls in love with government money.”

The claim that journalists can be bought is widespread, says Haak. “This has been standard practice for years,” he says. It is a “creeping poison that is constantly administered in small doses”. One example is Höcke, who has distanced himself from the term “lying press” („Lügenpresse“) while at the same time stating that the most he ever says is “gap press” („Lückenpresse“)[1] – suggesting media suppresses what is not in line with what AfD calls „green-left ideology“.

In the past, many print media claimed to write for everyone, recalls Haak: “The tiler, the trainee, the unemployed and grandma. Everyone could pick something out of the newspaper. Things weren’t so polarized back then, so it worked.” But the constant right-wing extremist discrediting of established media have clearly visible consequences today, says Haak. Many regional newspapers are still looking for journalists in local editorial offices, for example. “But for some of these jobs, no one is even applying anymore.” In the past, there would have been 15 applications from all over Germany for one such position. “That was attractive, the image was different.” And at least some of the readers, viewers, listeners and users now tick the way the AfD would like them to. For many editorial offices, the question therefore naturally arises as to how election coverage is possible without constantly kicking a not insignificant part of their own media audience in the shins. “There is an ongoing discussion.”

Although it is absolutely clear that “the lights will go out” in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia if large numbers of skilled foreign workers do not arrive, it is “almost impossible to write in a text that we need the influx of foreigners without someone saying that this is ‘left-wing extremist agitation’.” Readers complained that articles about the “Remigration Conference” in Potsdam uncovered by Correctiv last November were “tendentious” or “bashing”.

“In times when print circulations are in decline, this is a huge problem,” says Sebastian Haak. The newspaper crisis is having a full impact here. “For some newspapers, it’s five past twelve. Yet they are a very influential part of the media landscape.” In Thuringia, some of the remaining daily newspaper publishers are recording a drop in circulation of 5 percent per quarter. Publicly financed foundations to support the media have been discussed for around a decade. “But nothing has happened.”

When readers turn away, this opens up space for alternative media with pro-Russian and far-right propaganda. In the area, there are many free advertising papers “sometimes at the lowest level”, says Haak: “There is talk of ‘opinion dictatorship’ and that foreigners are taking our women and stabbing us.”

Haak believes that the collapse of the economic foundation of the private media landscape in Germany is its biggest problem. “We can legally defend ourselves against demands for injunctions, we can hire security services against violence.” But “we can’t really defend ourselves against readers turning away from pro-democratic reporting,” says Haak. That’s much more dangerous than ‘I’ll punch you in the nose or knock your camera away’.”

MDR reporter Jana Merkel is therefore particularly concerned that MDR announced a cost-cutting program in May that particularly affects the “Political Magazines and Reportages” editorial department, for which Merkel also works and which is known for its investigative research. It is the “wrong signal, because the political events in our region actually need close-knit, in-depth reporting”, says Merkel. The taz also spoke to other MDR employees who are affected by the cuts. They report that the decision feels like a slap in the face, especially in these times. “You work your ass off, are constantly hostile and then have to ask yourself whether you will have to look for another job from January,” describes one journalist who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of professional consequences. The fact that investigative journalism is being weakened right now is a fatal signal.

The broadcaster owes this to its audience, Merkel states. MDR employees criticized the decision in an open letter.[2] More than 500 people signed as supporters, including journalists from other media, people from academia, culture, civil society and the MDR audience. “I was really delighted and touched by this broad support,” says Merkel.

At the same time, the broadcaster is trying to help its employees. MDR has released an employee to act as a direct contact person in the event of attacks and assaults on MDR employees. The specialized lawyer already checks possible criminal relevance in-house; if prosecution is realistic, she forwards reports directly to a specially established contact point at the public prosecutor’s office.

For Jana Merkel and her colleagues, security teams are now standard at certain rallies. “Unfortunately, this also creates distance from people and makes conversations more difficult, but I understand that there is no other way,” says Merkel. She has already experienced several situations herself that “would probably have been unpleasant without the two lockers at my side.” She also finds the mutual support in her team to be very reliable and helpful, she says.

However, Merkel also sees room for improvement when it comes to the question of how affected journalists can be supported. She would like all public broadcasters to sign up to the Code of Protection for Journalists under Threat[3], which was initiated in 2022 by Reporters Without Borders and the German Journalists’ Union, among others. In addition to personal protection and legal support, this code also provides psychological help and training on how to deal with hate speech.

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[1]    https://www.facebook.com/Bjoern.Hoecke.AfD/posts/nein-ich-habe-den-begriff-l%C3%BCgenpresse-meines-wissens-nie-in-den-mund-genommen-da/1650192565222023/

[2]    https://www.djv.de/news/offene-briefe/keine-kuerzungen-beim-mdr/

[3]    https://schutzkodex.de/

AfD: Founded in 2014, the AfD has been the strongest party in Thuringia in the polls since 2019. State chairman Björn Höcke is considered the most important figure in the party’s nationally dominant nationalist wing. The Thuringian state association is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as “definitely right-wing extremist”. Both the federal party and the Thuringian state association have constantly attacked the media. Höcke plans to end Thuringia’s involvement in public broadcasting if he comes to power.

III. Weg/Heimat: In addition to the AfD, there are influential neo-Nazi groups and parties in Thuringia, in particular the state association of the former NPD, now known as “Die Heimat”, and the right-wing extremist voters’ association Bündnis Zukunft Hildburghausen led by neo-Nazi Tommy Frenck. At rallies of the right-wing extremist scene in Thuringia, attacks on journalists have been a regular occurrence.

Alternative media: In recent years, far-right and populist alternative media have become increasingly strong throughout Germany. These include the Austrian channel Auf1.TV, the portal Nius, the Compact magazine  and many others. At the same time, there are regional advertising papers in Thuringia with an AfD profile, such as the Südthüringer Rundschau[1]. They are in a reciprocal dynamic with the attacks on established media: they convey and reinforce their political discrediting by actors such as the AfD, present themselves as sources of truthful information and increasingly benefit from the mistrust of established media that is fueled in this way. They are thus in a symbiotic relationship with actors such as the AfD, which is based, among other things, on the defamation of “mainstream media”.

One of the most important mobilization platforms is the Telegram channel “Freies Thüringen”[2]. The thrust here is always the same: to shake people’s trust in the media and the state. Among other things, conspiracy narratives are used, often centered around a supposedly secretive, globally networked elite that aims to destroy traditional social structures. There is a strong proximity to anti-Semitic ideologies, “Reich citizens” and “self-administrators”. Topics include the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and climate policy.

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[1]    https://www.rundschau.info/

[2]    https://t.me/freiesth

The attacks against the established media revolve around a limited number of constantly repeated topoi. The most important of these include:

Not objective, not “far from the state”, but propaganda instruments

The established media would not provide objective information, but would omit things that do not fit the red-green ideology, such as crimes committed by foreigners[1] and other migration problems. The MDR would not fulfill its obligation and its self-image of being “far from the state”[2]. Instead, it is a propaganda tool of the old parties and resembles the state media of the GDR. The “Freies Thüringen” telegram channel, for example, describes MDR as a “politically instrumentalized broadcaster”[3] that “favors the cartel parties, while the AfD is defamed or ignored.”

Enemies of freedom of speech
The established media are opponents of freedom of opinion and the fundamental right to free speech because certain views and statements are not given space and people with dissenting opinions are not given a platform. The removal of cabaret artist Uwe Steimle from the MDR program is cited as an example: The right-leaning Steimle was fired because he refused to “keep his mouth shut and diligently swim along with the mainstream“[4], the AfD states. „The audience knew Uwe Steimle as an uncomfortable and critical spirit. (…) The whole process is fatally reminiscent of the GDR, where critical thoughts could only be expressed in niches. Anyone who swam against the tide was dumped.” According to MDR, Steimle had “repeatedly and massively questioned the fundamental values of public broadcasting”.[5]

Not for the general public
The established media have distanced themselves from the general population and only report for a small elite of liberal-minded people from academic milieus and/or large cities. The Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke said that many journalists only conveyed “the opinion of a small political caste”.[6]

Left-wing green and “woke”
The established media do not offer objective information as a basis for forming their own opinions, but try to re-educate their audience in line with woke, left-green ideology, for example by imposing “trans ideology” or “gender language”.[7]

Living off compulsory fees
The ÖRR lives from the fact that the state supports it with compulsory fees that everyone has to pay. This finances high salaries and in return the journalists are not prepared to control the powerful in the interests of the people, but to carry out propaganda in their interests.[8]

Stirring up “hate” against right-wing politicians
After his speech at the AfD party conference in Pfiffelbach, where he announced his intention to leave the MDR, Björn Höcke told the editor-in-chief of the far-right Compact magazine, Jürgen Elsässer, that there was a “dehumanization of my person in particular by the established media” that had reached an “extent that sometimes leaves me speechless”. [9]

Lie because they want to disguise their failure in 2015

According to the far right, the then Chancellor Angela Merkel would never have been able to maintain her refugee policy for so long if the media had not supported her. This accusation still has an impact today: By lying about migrant crimes rates, they want to disguise their own failure.[10]

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[1]    https://www.afd.de/einzelfallticker/

[2]    https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Programm_AfD_Online_.pdf

[3]    https://t.me/freiesth/17716

[4]    https://afd-dd.de/andre-wendt-mdr-feuert-uwe-steimle-ein-kritischer-geist-wird-abserviert/

[5]    https://www.mdr.de/unternehmen/fragen-antworten-absetzung-steimle-100.html

[6]    https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/gewalt-gegen-zdf-reporterin-schwere-vorwuerfe-gegen-afd-vize-gauland/12647868.html

[7]    https://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/plus239113451/Oeffentlich-rechtlicher-Rundfunk-Wie-ARD-und-ZDF-unsere-Kinder-indoktrinieren.html

[8]    https://www.afd.de/stephan-brandner-afd-liegt-goldrichtig-rundfunkbeitrag-findet-keinen-rueckhalt-in-der-bevoelkerung/

[9]    Video nach Compact-Verbot auf Youtube gelöscht

[10]  https://afdkompakt.de/2024/06/20/messer-attacken-und-gefaengnisse-diese-zahlen-zeigen-die-luegen-der-ampel-politik/