Press release junge Welt: Lawsuit by daily newspaper junge Welt against the Federal Republic of Germany

For years, the national daily newspaper junge Welt has been the only German daily newspaper to be mentioned in the German domestic intelligence service›s ‹Report on the Protection of the Constitution›. Verlag 8. Mai GmbH, which publishes the newspaper, filed a lawsuit against this back in September 2021. The first main hearing in the case is now scheduled for 18 July 2024 at the Berlin Administrative Court. Previously, the publisher had urgently requested a date after the Administrative Court in 2022 rejected the preliminary injunction applied for by the publisher in the matter. ‹Also because new ›Report on the Protection of the Constitution‹ are published every year, the content of which requires a costly and labour-intensive response, the long waiting time borders on delaying proceedings,› said Dietmar Koschmieder, Managing Director of the publishing house, in Berlin on Tuesday.

The German domestic intelligence service has considered the daily newspaper junge Welt to be the ‹most important and highest-circulation medium in left-wing extremism› for many years. According to Koschmieder, the newspaper, which is completely independent of political parties, churches and companies, is not recognised for what it undoubtedly is: an independent journalistic product. Instead, the editorial team, publishing house and the LPG junge Welt eG co-operative, which is supported by readers, are, like the newspaper itself, ‹extremist groups of people› pursuing subversive goals, according to the secret service construct. This is justified by the Marxist orientation of the newspaper.

As junge Welt, like competing media, is also subject to market laws, it suffers considerable disadvantages as a result of the actions of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, not only in its editorial work but also in its advertising and distribution. For example, it is denied the paid rental of advertising space in railway stations or on German Federal Railways trains and the broadcasting of paid advertising spots on public radio, and authors, business and dialogue partners, as well as institutions, cease to cooperate - in each case with reference to the newspaper being named in the constitution protection report. The deliberate violation of press freedom is the declared intention of the federal government in order to limit the newspaper‹s reach, notes Koschmieder. The declared aim is to limit the relevance and ›effectiveness‹ of junge Welt. The federal government openly admitted this in May 2021 in response to a parliamentary question from the parliamentary group Die Linke. It was explicitly stated that such a mention in the constitution protection report would serve to ›remove the breeding ground for such anti-constitutional endeavours (...)‹. The publisher then filed a lawsuit.

›On 18 July, it will become clear how far the claims arising from the constitution are from reality in this country today,‹ says Dietmar Koschmieder. If necessary, the publisher will demand the granting of freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and freedom of trade up to the Federal Constitutional Court.

Press contact:
junge Welt
Redaktion
Telefon: 030 / 53 63 55-0
redaktion@jungewelt.de