Controversy over journalist accreditation in the NSU process

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A controversy over journalist accreditation arose during the NSU trial in 2013. The start of the NSU trial was postponed to May 6, 2013 as a result of a controversial accreditation process for media representatives and a decision on this by the Federal Constitutional Court in April 2013.

First place allocation in March 2013

The 50 available fixed seats for journalists from the Munich Higher Regional Court in the so-called first served forgiven. Both the Turkish and German media and politicians criticized the fact that Turkish and other international media representatives, with the exception of RTL Netherlands , Nederlands Dagblad and De Telegraaf , should not have a permanent seat in the meeting room during the process. The reason given was that eight out of ten murder victims were of Turkish origin . A video broadcast of the trial in another room and the move to a larger room were rejected by the court. In addition, the offer by the German media to give Turkish journalists their seats was declared inadmissible by the court. The court stated that the journalists were accredited strictly according to the chronological order of their registration .

The Turkish Vice Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ expressed doubts about the impartiality of the court due to the access regulation to the trial. The Turkish daily Sabah filed an urgent application to the Federal Constitutional Court against the allocation of seats, which was partially granted on April 12, 2013. The court had to provide an adequate number of seats for representatives of foreign media with special reference to the victims of the accused offenses. This could either be achieved by adding at least three seats or a new accreditation procedure. The German Federal Government, represented by Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle , welcomed the vote of the Constitutional Court. Westerwelle had linked the question of access for foreign media representatives to Germany's reputation abroad.

Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court

The decision of the Federal Constitutional Court prompted the court to postpone the start of the process by three weeks from April 17, 2013 to May 6, 2013 in order to be able to carry out a new accreditation procedure. Attorneys for the joint plaintiffs as well as Barbara John , the federal government's ombudswoman for the victims of the NSU and their families, and Aiman ​​Mazyek , chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany , criticized the postponement. Thomas Bliwier, lawyer for the family of the NSU victim Halit Yozgat , again requested a video broadcast of the main hearing in another room in order to give more journalists the opportunity to report. His demand was supported by the former Vice President of the Federal Constitutional Court Ernst Gottfried Mahrenholz and politicians like Clemens Binninger ; however, the President of the Federal Court of Justice, Klaus Tolksdorf , expressed legal concerns. Bliwier and his partners turned to the Federal Constitutional Court on this matter and applied for an interim order . However, the Federal Constitutional Court did not accept the complaint for decision. The complainants are said to have not had their own fundamental rights violated, and arguments with the public interest are not permitted.

Renewed accreditation process

The new accreditation procedure, which began on April 19, 2013, distributed the 50 seats for media representatives by lot . However, contingents have been set up so that five places are reserved for news agencies, four places for media publishing in Turkish and one place each for media publishing in Persian and Greek. The places were drawn on April 29, 2013.

The places were drawn as follows:

Of the national German-speaking media are therefore u. a. not represented: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Stern , die tageszeitung , Die Welt and Die Zeit . However, the Oberhessische Presse gave its place to the FAZ and the taz should regularly receive the place card from the radio station LORA Munich and the Turkish newspaper Evrensel. The star forms a pool with Brigitte, who is published by the same publisher.

The court made two mistakes in the raffle: A freelance employee of the WDR had withdrawn his seat application before the raffle, but was still given a seat. This was raffled again in the group of German-speaking media based in Germany and went to the independent media initiative “Das ZOB”, for which the freelance journalist Oliver Renn had applied by name. In addition, the MDR radio was caught in the lottery drum with the public television channels.

It was not until July 14, 2013 that it became known that the court had made another serious error. The registrations of several journalists ended up in the spam folder, so that they did not take part in the raffle. This error was discovered by chance on the first day of the trial, but was not disclosed by the court, so that the journalists concerned could not appeal or file a lawsuit. Despite this mishap, Judge Manfred Götzl does not see the principle of the public being violated, so the raffle does not have to be repeated.

Criticism of the postponement of the process due to the renewed accreditation procedure

Due to the postponement of the process due to the renewed accreditation procedure, the Turkish community in Germany and the ombudswoman of the federal government, Barbara John (CDU), demanded compensation for the relatives of the victims. For the bereaved, the postponement means “an emotional and organizational imposition”, said John. In the meantime, Bavaria's Minister of Justice, Beate Merk , has guaranteed the relatives financial compensation for the consequences of the decision. The legal basis on which such payments should be made has not yet been clarified.

Complaints from German media

On April 30, 2013, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Der Tagesspiegel and the tageszeitung announced that they wanted to legally examine the decision with a view to its compatibility with the fundamental right of freedom of the press ( Art. 5 GG ). These newspapers, like a number of other national media, had received nothing. However, the taz then announced on May 3 that it would instead share their seats with two media that had been drawn.

Later perception of the debate

In 2015, Gisela Friedrichsen ruled that the debate about press seats was disproportionate.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Accreditation list ( Memento from May 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.4 MB) at Norddeutscher Rundfunk, accessed on April 18, 2013.
  2. ↑ Controversy over places in the NSU trial: court remains tough ( Memento from March 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), in: Stern.de from March 29, 2013
  3. ↑ Turkey questions the neutrality of the Munich judges , in: Zeit Online , March 29, 2013
  4. ^ Urgent motion against the allocation of seats in the NSU trial in Karlsruhe is available , in: Die Welt from April 6, 2013
  5. ↑ BVerfG, 1 BvR 990/13, decision of April 12, 2013 , on: Website Das Bundesverfassungsgericht , accessed on April 13, 2013
  6. ↑ Court must provide seats for foreign press , Spiegel Online, April 12, 2013. Accessed April 12, 2013
  7. ↑ Foreign media must have access to the NSU trial , in: Die Welt, April 12, 2013. Accessed April 12, 2013
  8. ↑ “It is very important to me that Germany does not exercise dominance, but rather leads through persuasiveness and its own good example. Because we not only live in times of great probation, but also in a phase that shaped the image of Germany in Europe and in the world. Incidentally, it is also problematic here if a suspected terrorist organization can kill for years in Germany and it should then be sufficient during the trial that national media, but not representatives of the international public, have sufficient access to the negotiation. " " The centrifugal forces in Europe have never been so big ”Interview with Guido Westerwelle. In: FAZ April 10, 2013, accessed on April 18, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Reactions: NSU ombudswoman calls process postponement catastrophic. In: Spiegel Online. April 15, 2013, accessed April 16, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Beate Zschäpe will remain silent about the NSU murders. In: Welt online. April 16, 2013, accessed April 16, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Video transmission: NSU trial again subject for constitutional court. In: Welt online. April 20, 2013, accessed April 24, 2013 .
  12. ↑ BVerfG, 2 BvR 872/13, decision of April 24, 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2013 .
  13. ↑ disposal of Oblerlandesgerichts Munich on April 19, 2013. (PDF, 69 kB) (Not available online.) Archived from the original on 12 May 2013 ; Retrieved April 19, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justiz.bayern.de
  14. ↑ NSU trial: Munich court awards press seats by lottery. In: Spiegel Online. April 19, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2013 .
  15. ^ NSU trial: By lot in the courtroom ( memento from May 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) at br.de, April 29, 2013 (accessed on April 29, 2013).
  16. ↑ Press release of the Munich Higher Regional Court of April 29, 2013 ( Memento of the original of May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 141 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justiz.bayern.de
  17. ^ A b NSU trial in Munich. FAZ receives press space . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 3, 2013 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  18. ^ NSU trial. Mediengruppe Madsack leaves a press space to the FAZ In: FAZ . May 2, 2013 ( faz.net ).
  19. ↑ Brigitte and star form pool in the NSU trial, Stern from April 30, 2013 ( Memento from May 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ Press release: Another seat drawn in the NSU procedure May 2, 2013
  21. ↑ Göran Schattauer: The Munich court made another breakdown: Seats at the NSU trial: press registrations ended up in advertising rubbish. In: Focus Online . July 14, 2013, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  22. ↑ afp.com : NSU Trial: Compensation for members of the NSU victims. Bavaria's judiciary tried to limit the damage . In: Die Welt, April 16, 2013. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
  23. ^ NSU process: taz cooperates with two media. (No longer available online.) In: taz blog. May 3, 2013, archived from the original on May 5, 2013 ; Retrieved May 4, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blogs.taz.de
  24. ↑ What are you sending? , Die Zeit , issue No. 18/2015 from May 3, 2015.