Arndt Ginzel

Arndt Ginzel (* 1972 in Spremberg ) is a German investigative journalist .

Arndt Ginzel grew up in Bautzen and studied at the University of Leipzig . As a freelance journalist , he works with two partners from Leipzig . He works regularly for German television magazines such as Frontal21 ( ZDF ) and Die Story im Erste ( ARD ) and researches a wide variety of topics from Germany and abroad. For his publications on the " Sachsensumpf " affair, he and his colleague Thomas Datt were accused of defamation and defamation in 2010 and sentenced to a fine in the first instance, but acquitted in the second instance by the Dresden Regional Court. In 2015 he was briefly arrested by pro-Russian rebels while researching the war in eastern Ukraine .

When Ginzel wanted to report on a Pegida demonstration in Dresden for Frontal21 in August 2018 , he and his film team were checked by the police for around 45 minutes and prevented from doing their journalistic work after a demonstrator accused the team of illegally filmed him. The incident attracted international attention and sparked a debate on freedom of the press in Germany and the actions of the Saxon police. It became known on social media under the hashtags “ Pegizei ” and “Hutbürger”.

Awards and nominations

• 2010 regional author of the year for medium magazin for journalists
• 2017 Bavarian TV Prize for the TV report "Spiel im Schatten - Putin's unexplained war against the West"
• 2017 nomination for the German TV Prize for "Putin's Secret Network - How Russia Divides the West"
• 2019 Prize for the freedom and future of the media from the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PM from June 25, 2019: Prize for "independent journalism with an open visor". In: Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig . August 24, 2018, accessed June 25, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Dresden police apologize to the ZDF television team. In: Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk . August 25, 2018, accessed June 25, 2019 .