Although ZDF is the largest public service company in the country, it likes to keep things small when it comes to topics that affect the broadcaster itself.

That was the case in the debate about the journalist Nemi El-Hassan, who was accused of anti-Semitic statements that played down Islamism.

She was supposed to be the presenter of the WDR magazine “Quarks” - that's pending - but had already worked for ZDF.

When asked, it was said that they had got to know her as a “dedicated” journalist.

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for features online and "media".

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In the case of the author Feyza-Yasmin Ayhan, there are also questions. She is co-author of the series “Barrys Barbershop”, which the ZDF commissioned the production company Studio71. From her a sentence has been passed down such as: "Do not make media financed by Zionists like a large part of the country" - a friend advised her. At an event organized by the Hamas-related organization “German Youth for Palestine” on Jerusalem Day 2015, Ayhan said: “Nobody could counter if I say a two-state solution is not fair.” And: “What Israel is doing in Destroyed Palestine will not die, and what Israel has built in Palestine will not live for a second. ”She also shared a cartoon with a hook-nosed Jew / Israeli. The admission "will not live a second" must be seen as a denial of Israel's right to exist,if not count as a call to its destruction.

When asked by journalists, ZDF initially said that Ayhan was working as a writer for the comedy “Barrys Barbershop”. And: “Basically, all productions commissioned by ZDF are editorially approved and checked.” The anti-Semitism commissioner of the federal government, Felix Klein, Cem Özdemir and many others want to know exactly: Does that fit with ZDF?

The answer we received to our inquiry was that Feyza-Yasmin Ayhan was involved as a “junior gag writer” in the comedy “Barry's Barbershop”.

In the series, there are "no points of reference in terms of content for which the author is currently being criticized".

It goes without saying that “there is no place in the ZDF program for anti-Semitic, discriminatory and racist content”.

The station is aware of the critical examination of Ayhan's statements.

She "took a position from the production company on her statements from 2015, classified them and credibly distanced herself from anti-Semitism".

For the ZDF, the case is apparently closed.

I guess that's called ignorance.