Photo: @JurgenElsasser on X, 14 August 2024
A federal administrative court in Germany has temporarily lifted a ban on the anti-establishment right-wing Compact magazine.
The interior ministry, led by Social Democrat Nancy Faeser, banned Compact last month for “inciting hatred” and “aggressively propagating the toppling of the political order.” The ministry did not present any evidence that the publication had violated criminal laws. Critics of the government, including the anti-globalist opposition party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), accused the left-liberal government of a clearly politicised move to silence undesirable opinions.
Editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer called the ban a blow against press freedom.
However, the court in the eastern city of Leipzig said on Wednesday, August 14th, that it was not currently possible to determine whether Compact met the grounds for prohibition. The court said it had found evidence of the publication “violating human dignity” but said upholding a free press took precedence in its decision to overturn the ban.
Following the court’s verdict, Jürgen Elsässer said the ruling was the “biggest triumph in the history of news.” He voiced his confidence that the magazine would win its overall appeal as well. In a video posted on the social media platform X he said:
David defeats Goliath. Compact defeats Faeser. Democracy defeats dictatorship, and the people defeat the regime. Today the Federal Administrative Court put the Compact ban on ice. We can now continue to work in peace for at least two to three years.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said that, in light of the court ruling, Nancy Faeser should either resign or be dismissed from her ministerial role “for her brazen attack on press freedom,” and for trying to “undermine a fundamental right.”
Compact is an anti-establishment, anti-immigration publication which was founded in 2010. It had a circulation of 40,000 at the time of the ban; it has an active X account that counts 48,000 followers, and a YouTube channel with 341,000 subscribers.
In order to temporarily circumvent the ban, the content of the unpublished August edition of Compact was repackaged and published earlier this month under the title Näncy, in reference to the interior minister.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/court-lifts-ban-on-german-right-wing-magazine/