Germany bans right-wing newspaper – huge police raid

Published 16 July 2024 at 18.27

Media. In an exceptional measure against freedom of the press, the German government has dramatically banned the right-wing magazine Compact Magazine.

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On Tuesday, over 200 police officers carried out a dawn raid on the home of publisher Jürgen Elsässer, as well as the homes of other employees and financiers.

The media had been informed in advance of the raid and were on hand to photograph Alsatians in nightgowns surrounded by masked police.

Compact Magazine's website and social media have been taken down from the internet – including the magazine's YouTube channel with 300,000 subscribers.

Extraordinary scenes in Germany as police raid the home of Jürgen Elsässer, the publisher of the right-wing Compact Magazine, and remove various belongings from his residence outside Berlin.

Germany's interior minister has placed a blanket ban on the entire publication.

It… pic.twitter.com/KsV03IbbSs

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 16, 2024

Germany's far-left Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who personally ordered the ban, claims on social media that the magazine has agitated against “Jews, Muslims and our democracy”.

“Our ban is a heavy blow against the extreme right-wing scene,” she writes on X.

In another comment on the ban, she says:

– We will not allow ethnic definitions of who belongs in Germany and who does not. Our rule of law protects everyone who is persecuted because of their faith, their origin, their skin color or their democratic stance.

The measure has met with harsh criticism from several quarters. The Alternative for Germany (AFD) leadership calls the ban a serious blow to press freedom and accuses Faeser of abusing his power to suppress critical reporting.

Several legal experts also question the legality of the measure. The former defense minister Rupert Scholz believes that the measure is clearly unconstitutional because the freedom to express opinions is strongly protected by the constitution. Other lawyers point out that the ban should have been preceded by a judicial review.

Compact Magazine has previously been subject to surveillance by Germany's spy agency BFV, and was classified in 2021 as an actor with “extremist aspirations”. Despite this, no legal process had been initiated against Elsässer or his colleagues.

Jürgen Elsässer founded Compact Magazine in 2010. He is an old left-wing extremist who in his older years had second thoughts.