Germany’s far right attacks press freedom
Posted by Thomas Klikauer
Perhaps even before a free press emerged during a period known as Enlightenment, reactionary forces tried to eliminate the free – and even more so the “critical” – press as well as the journalism that came with it.
Both tended to expose those in power, those who were corrupt, and those who were both: powerful and corrupt.
On this, neither Germany nor the year 2025 are exceptions. In today’s Germany, the far right continues to attack the free press – viciously, ferociously, and continuously.
A recent study by the Leipzig-based (East-Germany) European Centre for Press and Media Freedom found six key elements:
- Personal Attacks: Far right attacks on press freedom are at an all-time high with 98 physical attacks in 2024. It marked a low point for press freedom in Germany since the centre started monitoring far right violence against the press in 2015.
- Public Rallies: For journalists, public rallies remain the singly most dangerous places. A whopping 76% of all attacks on journalists occurred at such rallies.
- Berlin: East-German states are the hotspot for far right anti-press brutalities. Here, Neo-Nazism is dominant and support for Germany’s neo-fascist AfD party is strong. However, when it comes to attacks on journalists, the focus has recently moved to Germany’s capital Berlin. Today, Berlin is even worse than East-Germany.
- Saxony: Surprisingly, the city of Berlin has even overtaken Germany’s foremost stronghold of Neo-Nazism: the East-German state of Saxony. Berlin has surpassed Saxony – the state that previously had the most physical attacks on journalists.
- Working Conditions: Local journalists also feel the pinch. Journalists – particularly in the East-German states of Saxony and Thuringia – have seen more attacks on them. This creates dangerous working conditions which, in turn, had a negative impact on their reporting – just as intended by Germany’s far right and adjacent Neo-Nazis.
- Freelance Journalists: Worse, many of the attacked journalists were freelancers. They experienced a significant lack of state protection and public support.
Overall, the number of physical attacks increased further from 2023 to 2024. Following the almost 70 attacks in 2023, a total of almost 100 “verified” assaults on journalists were recorded in 2024.
Thus, for the fifth consecutive year, the number of physical attacks remains significantly higher than in the period before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In other words, the COVID-19 pandemic did not just turbo-charge right-wing conspiracy fantasies, anti-democratic and anti-state sentiments, the pandemic was also accompanied by the rising mass appeal of Germany’s increasingly well-organised far right. These developments have made things worse for journalists.
Accompanying the steady escalating level of right-wing violence against journalists, press freedom was further challenged in the past years.
News coverage of recent rallies which often involve thugs – not just from the far right – are only possible with appropriate protective measures that journalists use. Journalist wearing safety helmets, for example.
Overall, Germany’s far right – including the even more brutal cohort of German Neo-Nazis – continue to pose the greatest threat to press freedom in Germany.
This is not new. Historically, Germany’s Hitler Nazis ended press freedom with the infamous Schriftleitergesetz. The press became a propaganda tool. In several countries, we see similar developments today.
On the official side, even Germany’s Ministry of Interior recorded a new peak in far-right extremist violence in 2024.
This occurred against this backdrop of a steady normalisation of far-right ideologies. Worse, this normalisation of fascism is making inroads into society. It is what Canadian scholar and writer Henry Giroux calls,
Sadly, this is also evident in the record-breaking electoral results for Germany’s most neo-fascist political party: the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Germany’s neo-fascists have been successful at local, state, federal, and European elections.
Worse, the neo-fascist AfD is currently challenging Germany’s conservative CDU with almost 25% of voter support (April 2025) for the AfD – compared to the CDU’s 25% to 27%.
With the rise of the neo-fascist AfD and adjacent far right rallies, there is a growing public acceptance of far-right agitation, Neo-Nazi violence and thuggish street-fighting brutalities.
This further challenges democracy. In short, the public domain is transitioning from a forum of open public debate to thuggish violence. A rude, violent, and barbaric political culture is developing in Germany.
The far right damage to press freedom is also manifested in the increased capacity of the neo-fascist AfD to mobilise its anti-democratic and anti-parliamentary far right.
Today, Neo-Nazis and AfD thugs openly fight against democracy on Germany’s streets. While doing so, German Neo-Nazis – including a young Neo-Nazi called Björn Höcke – do not want to be filmed. Particularly when singing Hitler’s old SS songs.
In Germany’s recent history, this too, is not new. Hitler’s favourite battle song was about street fighting. It became the unofficial anthem of Nazism.
Besides personal insults and brutal beatings at far-right rallies and other Neo-Nazi events, journalists also face online insults.
These come in the forms of public defamation, personal naming and shaming, and threats on online platforms euphemistically known as social media.
Beyond that, the far right AfD has increasingly used the tactic of denying accreditation to media outlets and journalists it frames as the enemy to be destroyed. At far right and AfD events, journalists report harassment, bullying and attacks.
Recent election results show that the AfD is not elected despite its far-right ideology and its attacks on the free press – but because of it.
This includes the constant vilification of the media by the neo-fascist AfD. Far from harming the neo-fascist AfD, it has had a rather positive effect on the party’s support.
Perhaps more than in other countries, the nation that gave the world Auschwitz, continues to have a significant base of Neo-Nazis ready to attack press freedom.
It is feasible that as many as 25% of Germans, who support the neo-fascist AfD seem to be rather resistant to learning from Germany’s Nazi past.
Based on a significant level of mass support, it can safely be assumed that the neo-fascist AfD’s increasing strength will lead to further attacks on the free press in the coming years.
To make matters worse, the record number of far-right parliamentarians and their Neo-Nazi stuff will only encourage the AfD’s attack on the press. In short, the neo-fascist AfD will continue to intensify its attacks and intimidation of critical and mainstream media.
While most physical attacks on journalists occurred in the Berlin, the city was closely followed the East-German state of Saxony and West-German state of Bavaria.
Since the beginning of the aforementioned study in 2015, Saxony remains the East-German state with the most thriving Neo-Nazis.
And Saxony has always been the state with the highest number of attacks on the media and journalists. Sadly, Berlin has become the new leader since last year.
At the same time, Germany’s Monitoring of Local Journalism examined the personal safety of journalists. It also examined the experiences of threats against local journalists in two East-German states: Saxony (Zwickau) and Thuringia (Jena). These are the two home states of Germany’s most brutal Neo-Nazi killer platoon: the NSU.
In both East-German states, recent election results have further shifted the political landscape to far right and the neo-fascist AfD. To many, the question arises: is this an exclusive East-German problem?
The map (showing the year 2025) depicts a divided Germany. A democratic west versus an authoritarian east exists. Germany’s east is dominated by the neo-fascist AfD.
The map also displays Germany’s western parts. The west is defined by electoral constituencies won by either the conservative CDU (black), the social-democratic SPD (red) and or environmentalist Greens (green).
Meanwhile, Germany’s east was almost exclusively won by the neo-fascist AfD. To camouflage its true Neo-Nazi ideology, the neo-fascist AfD fancies the colour blue – not the traditional colour of Hitler’s Nazism (brown):
In the wake of this, local journalists – particularly but not exclusively in Germany’s eastern states – are increasingly confronted with aggressive, bullying and intimidating AfD politicians and their henchmen. For them, media hostility is as central as is their hatred of democracy.
Then as today, the far right’s strategy has best been summed up by none other than Hitler’s propaganda boss, Goebbels, who wrote in 1935,
It will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy
that it provided its mortal enemies with the means by which it was destroyed.
Das wird immer einer der besten Witze der Demokratie bleiben,
dass sie ihren Todfeinden die Mittel selber stellte, durch die sie vernichtet wurde.
Much of this is part of a far right political strategy that works towards authoritarianism and, potentially, a neo-fascist dictatorship.
The Italian Holocaust survivor and philosophical scholar, Primo Levi, reminds us that every age has its own Fascism. In other words, fascism in 2025 might look rather different from that of the year 1925.
Today’s fascism might come as authoritarianism. And it might come camouflaged as façade-democracy.
Under façade democracy, democracy, manipulated and staged elections are held in the absence of a free press.
In a façade democracy, elections feature merely as a disguise for authoritarianism: North Korea has elections just as Hitler’s Nazi-Germany had elections. So does Russia, Hungary, and many other façade democracies. Every staged election can engineer mass support.
Meanwhile back in today’s Germany, the very high approval ratings for Germany’s far right, the neo-fascist AfD and Neo-Nazis shows that significant parts of the German population endorse, or at least tolerate, authoritarian worldviews, attacks on democracy and the free media.
In addition to the institutionalised far right in the form of the neo-fascist AfD sitting in Germany’s parliaments at local, state and federal level, outside of such parliaments, Germany’s occult-inspired far right, esoteric Neo-Nazis and conspiracy fantasy driven people also contribute to the rising maltreatment of journalists.
Especially in the context of public rallies, assemblies and other events, such far right hate groups pose a real and present danger to media workers. Private and often very personal threats, bullying and intimidation are also not uncommon.
Many local journalists noted the challenging working conditions in which journalists have to operate. This has worsened significantly in recent years.
From the far-right street fighting hooligans of PEGIDA and its even more radical offshoots that dominated during the COVID-19 pandemic, to the neo-fascist AfD, journalists are facing increasing pressure.
Many journalists are also confronted – daily – by media-hostile far right thugs. Local journalists often live in the communities they report on. A clear separation between professional and private life is hardly possible. This makes them particularly vulnerable to attacks by the far right.
While state (police) and non-state (helmets, etc.) protective measures continue to be implemented, there are still serious gaps in the general protection and support for journalists by society.
One potential solution or, at least, betterment is the EU’s Anti-SLAPP Directive. This directive should be fully incorporated into German law.
Beyond that, there needs to be an open dialogue about the value of press freedom, the mental health of journalists, and the importance of critical journalism for democracy.
Photo: (source: German public TV – https://www.mdr.de/wissen/pressefreiheit-in-deutschland-es-wird-schlechter100.html)
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