Photo: Alexander Böhm, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser “has shown us the ugly face of dictatorship,” says Jürgen Elsässer, founder and editor-in-chief of the right-wing magazine Compact, which was banned by the interior ministry on Tuesday, July 16th. In an interview for Junge Freiheit, Elsässer says the accusations made against his magazine are unsubstantiated, and that the move to ban the publication without any legal grounds is a blow against press freedom—meaning that any news outlet can be targeted from now on.
As we reported previously, Nancy Faeser claims the ban is justified by saying that Compact and its affiliated organisations “are directed against the constitutional order” and that the magazine “agitates in an unspeakable way against Jews, Muslims, and against our democracy.”
Compact is an anti-establishment, anti-immigration publication which was established in 2010. It had a circulation of 40,000; it has an X account that now counts 45,400 followers and a YouTube channel with 348,000 subscribers—the latter two numbers rose by 3,000 following the censorship announcement. The magazine’s website and online shop are already inaccessible due to Tuesday’s ban, but its YouTube and X accounts remain public and active.
Such popularity online is a moot point, however, the publisher says. Jürgen Elsässer claims that his media organisation—which employs more than 20 people—is currently unable to publish any new content, as the company’s laptops, mobile phones, and equipment from its TV studio were all confiscated by the police in house raids conducted on Tuesday. Unsold magazines were also taken away, depriving the organisation of vital income.
The editor-in-chief listed previously existing difficulties, such as having his magazine banned from stores in train stations and its bank account terminated. Elsässer got through these hardships thanks to supporters. “That’s probably what angered Faeser and Haldenwang,” that’s why they went ahead with the ban, he said, referring to Faeser and Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesverfassungsschutz (BfV), which in 2021 classified the magazine as extremist, nationalist and anti-minority. The agency has also been instrumental in the witch hunt against the second most popular party in Germany, the anti-globalist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
Jürgen Elsässer rejects the negative labels pinned on his organisation, saying he is neither racist, nor antisemitic, and the magazine has never incited hatred or violence. There have been no successful court cases brought against Compact that substantiate these accusations. Elsässer even won two lawsuits against Jutta Ditfurth, a left-wing sociologist and politician who accused him of being an antisemite. But all this “doesn’t matter because the state can do what it pleases,” says Elsässer, adding it is the government that is the enemy of the democratic order, not him.
The editor-in-chief also criticised the ministry for banning the magazine as though it were an association. Banning an association is not so difficult because it is not protected by the freedom of the press, constitutional law professor Volker Boehme-Neßle told Die Welt. Nancy Faeser played a “trick” because even though Compact is clearly a media organisation, the company that publishes it, Compact-Magazin GmbH can be viewed as an association. According to Volker Boehme-Neßle:
This is something very problematic and very sensitive. Namely: a government bans a media outlet that is critical of the government. These things happen in authoritarian states.
Jürgen Elsässer says he has contacted his lawyers, and will take the case to court. “Faeser is stretching the law, possibly even overstretching it. In the end, it will most likely be a court that will have to make a decision,” writes Die Zeit in its opinion piece.