Salon Columnists’ Poster Campaign Rejected Amidst Tense Security Situation in Berlin

Due to the tense security situation in Berlin, Wall “mandatorily presented” the motives to both contractual partners, the company says. It wasn’t just about the motives of the Salon columnists. “Since the beginning of this week, we have received a large number of booking requests for campaigns that were created as a result of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the associated hostage-taking,” a spokeswoman told HORIZONT. Both the state of Berlin and the BVG rejected the motives, the spokeswoman continued. The BVG confirms this. “In fact, the BVG has currently rejected requests for motives from Wall. The motives in question were not compatible with the contracts between BVG and Wall,” explains a BVG spokeswoman to HORIZONT.

The Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment made a similar statement. “In view of two motives and the associated assessment of the Berlin police, we recommended to our contractual partner Wall not to publish the posters. The two motives were classified as polarizing and glorifying violence in their effect, although the message is intended to be directed against the terrorist organization Hamas.” says a spokeswoman.

Given this assessment, the question arises as to whether the Salon columnists’ motives were even examined. Apparently not from the Senate administration. According to information from HORIZONT, ​​the two motifs with which the Senate administration was concerned did not come from the pen of the Salon columnists. Rather, these are posters from other organizations about the Gaza war, which are much more explicit and where the accusation of glorifying violence is actually obvious. “We had no other motives,” asserted the spokeswoman for the Senate Administration. Really not? Either way, one gets the impression that those involved were overwhelmed by the number of requests and, in view of the tense situation, decided to reject poster motifs about the Gaza war across the board. “EA fundamental decision was made by the contractual partners after we had already received numerous booking inquiries and the motives had been evaluated. As a result, the motives of the Salon columnists were also affected,” says the Wall spokeswoman.

It is not uncommon in the industry for outdoor advertising companies to examine poster motifs and, if necessary, reject them – and is sometimes required. Ströer, for example, was exposed to massive criticism a good two years ago because the outdoor advertiser did not reject the smear campaign directed against the Greens with the slogan #GreenMist. Ströer emphasized at the time that he had also examined the motives and rejected some. At the time, Ströer justified the fact that some motifs were still published by saying that they simply could not identify any immoral or criminal content.

Regardless, the rejection is met with little understanding among Salon columnists. “If the BVG – and therefore we Berliners as shareholders – retreat from the latent violence of Hamas supporters in our city, we will betray the Jews who are currently under acute threat,” says Salon columnist Hein, who runs the liberal-oriented author’s blog as editor-in-chief, opposite HORIZON. From Hein’s point of view, clear actions are needed right now. “Some government spokespersons keep saying that there is no place for anti-Semitism in Germany, while we see images of anti-Semitic mobs in squares in Germany and Berlin every day. The publication of the series of posters would be a small gesture. If even that is not possible, it’s all words of solidarity and concern,” continued Hein.

But the campaign hasn’t died completely. The motifs in Berlin are currently being displayed by supporters of the campaign on freely accessible areas such as power boxes. Hein also wants to spread the motifs via social media channels. This shouldn’t fail because of the money for the necessary reach, as long as the fundraising campaign takes place as planned.