Intervention in freedom of the press: NRW Interior Minister Reul is defeated against Junge Freiheit

The North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) is a man of clear words.

Against any form of extremism, whether it comes from the left, the right or the jihadist corner, the North Rhine-Westphalian interior minister pursues his zero tolerance policy and always finds catchy formulations for it.

But the limits of the right of expression also apply to high officials like Reul.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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After a ruling by the Düsseldorf Administrative Court, which has now been published, Reul can no longer claim that reading the weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit could be seen as a warning signal for right-wing extremist attitudes.

Likewise, Reul had expressed himself last year after the arrest of the police administration officer Thorsten W. from Hamm. W. currently has to answer to the OLG Stuttgart along with eleven other men. The federal prosecutor accuses the 51-year-old man of having supported a terrorist organization called "Gruppe S." which is said to have planned attacks on mosques and prominent politicians. After W.'s arrest, Reul reprimanded the Hamm Police Department because there had been alarming signals for many years in the case of the administrative officer. At the opening event of the extremism commissioner of the North Rhine-Westphalia police authorities, Reul also named reading Junge Freiheit as a warning signal for right-wing extremist attitudes.

According to the opinion of the Administrative Court, this statement constitutes an "encroachment on the area of ​​protection of the freedom of the press guaranteed by fundamental rights", which protects the holders of fundamental rights "from the state influencing the information disseminated with the help of the press, in particular from negative or positive sanctions", the content and Link to the design of the media organ. In addition, the court sentenced the minister to inform his extremism officer within four weeks of the judgment becoming final that his testimony was “unlawful” (Ref .: 1K5973 / 20).