The controversial column of a “taz” author triggered a medium quake in Berlin. Interior Minister Seehofer first threatened to file a criminal complaint, but then withdrew. The journalist herself is obviously under massive threat.
The Berlin daily newspaper “taz” has contradicted a media report that the author of a controversial column is trying to protect the police. “Focus Online” reported last weekend that the journalist had the police asked for a consultation and security interview. The “taz now made it clear that this had been done by the legal department and editorial management of the daily newspaper – but not on behalf of the author.
It is true that the journalist appears to be exposed to considerable threats. As “Focus Online” writes, referring to police circles in Berlin, after the publication of the column, “numerous phone calls and emails with threatening content were received”. Some reactions should “be classified as a direct threat to the physical well-being of the journalist,” it said.
Seehofer: “Disinhibition of the words”
The column published in the middle of the month had made politically significant waves. In the article, the author advocated letting officials work on garbage dumps if the police were abolished. Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer spoke of a “disinhibition of words” and in the meantime considered a complaint against the journalistwhat from different representatives from the media and politics was seen as an attack on freedom of the press.
The CSU politician rowed back on Thursday and instead invited the “taz” chief editor to his ministry for an interview. However, on Saturday he defended his approach. With the threat of a criminal complaint, he had pursued the goal of initiating a public debate about the “unspeakable article” in the “taz”, he told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
Even in democracy, the opinion and Freedom of the press their limits, Seehofer continued. Nobody has the right to belittle other people, no matter which group they belong to, with inhuman language. “I remain convinced that this article fulfills criminal offenses. The investigative authorities are now responsible for investigating this.”
According to the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, more than 25 criminal complaints were received by the police in response to the column. Hundreds of complaints were received by the German Press Council, which is the self-regulation of the press.
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