With a vote of nine to five*, the Advisory Board of Germany’s public broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) on Friday blocked the contract extension of the TV station’s current editor-in-chief Nikolaus Brender, raising serious concerns of political interference at the public broadcaster. Markus Schächter, ZDF’s director-general, had requested that Brender’s contract be extended by the […]

Concerns are mounting in Germany over the political independence of public broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), with the approach of a Friday 27 November Administrative Council meeting during which members will decide on the future of current editor-in-chief Nikolaus Brender. Brender, an award-winning journalist with a reputation for staunch independence, has led the ZDF editorial […]

A group of German journalists, lawyers and doctors today filed a complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court against a controversial law that greatly increases the power of the police to conduct secret surveillance of citizens. The law – which has been in force since 1 January and is already the subject of one unresolved complaint […]

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, welcomes a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany limiting the application of the Recht auf Gegendarstellung (Right of Reply) against print media. “This is a sensible decision on a media regulation that if wrongly […]