German public broadcaster NDR and its flagship news programme Tagesschau have for months refused to retract false reporting about the now infamous ‘Potsdam meeting’ despite a court warning refraining them from doing so.
The case highlights how the public media—which is supposed to be unbiased, as it is financed by German taxpayers—is willing to falsify its reporting to spread its liberal agenda and attack anti-establishment and anti-immigration parties it does not agree with.
The current case revolves around the so-called ‘Potsdam meeting,’ a top-level meeting last year in Potsdam between members of the anti-globalist opposition AfD party, the right-wing Identitarian Movement, and the centre-right CDU.
A left-wing investigative news outlet, Correctiv, heavily funded by the German state, claimed to make explosive revelations about the meeting, stating in January that a master plan was devised in Potsdam: an alleged plot to deport millions of migrants, including those with German citizenship.
It later turned out that the publication had misreported the event, and that the meeting had actually focused on a more restrictive migration policy, involving stricter border controls and the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and illegal immigrants only. Correctiv itself backtracked, stating that they had in fact “not spoken of deportations,” and other media outlets had “misinterpreted” major aspects of their reporting about the meeting.
One of the attendees at Potsdam, constitutional law expert and legal representative of the AfD Ulrich Vosgerau, took legal action not only against Correctiv for making false allegations against him but against a number of other publications that repeated the fake news.
A recent court ruling in Hamburg has prohibited public broadcasters ARD and NDR from repeating the allegation that the expulsion of German citizens of foreign origin was discussed in Potsdam, because the claim is untrue.
According to lawyers representing Ulrich Vosgerau, NDR had been informed as early as the middle of March—when the legal proceedings against the broadcaster began—that it had been spreading false allegations regarding the Potsdam story.
Wider besseres Wissen weigert sich die „Tagesschau“ monatelang, „Correctiv“-Fake News zu korrigieren. Jetzt legt die Kanzlei Höcker Programmbeschwerde ein. Der JF liegt das Dokument vor, das zeigt, wie die ARD gegen alle Regeln verstößt.
— Ulrich Vosgerau (@UlrichVosgerau) August 29, 2024
HAMBURG/BERLIN. Im Namen des…
“At no time, neither out of court nor in court, did the NDR, argue even once that its reporting was truthful,” said Vosgerau’s lawyer, Carsten Brennecke. Despite the court hearing credible evidence that the accusations made against the participants of the Potsdam meeting were not true, NDR did not use the opportunity to investigate and find out the truth, but instead declined to correct its articles, thus continuing to spread disinformation.
The lawyers filed a complaint on Monday, August 26th with the NDR Rundfunkrat, the Broadcasting Council responsible for safeguarding the broadcaster’s independence. Carsten Brennecke believes the broadcaster not only failed to adhere to journalistic ethics and standards but also to the principles and guidelines of the public broadcaster.
According to media reports, NDR could face a fine of up €250,000, or imprisonment of those responsible, if it does not comply with the court order.
