When the Associated Press refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the American Gulf after Donald Trump renamed it, The US president banned the agency's journalists from entering the Oval Office and boarding Air Force One. However, AP immediately received it rightly support from Germany.
When ZDF correspondent Elmar Theveßen accused Donald Trump's Jewish adviser, Stephen Miller, of having links with Nazi ideology, the US president's envoy Richard Grenell expressed outrage and in connection with the case journalist removed from some of his duties. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul immediately however, he rightly made it clear that in such situations, freedom of speech must remain a priority.
When Donald Trump once again calls the New York Times an “enemy of the people” — before giving him a two-hour interview — experts look for analogies to dark periods in our history.
Unfortunately, people in Germany do not pay as much attention to problematic situations related to freedom of speech in their own country. What we criticize in Donald Trump, we tolerate in ourselves.
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What does Donald Trump say about unfavorable journalists?
How does Germany respond to restrictions on freedom of speech?
What did the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein say about Nius?
What are Trump's plans for free speech?
On Wednesday Prime Minister of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel Günther, called the right-wing news and journalistic portal Nius “an enemy of democracy”. When TV presenter Markus Lanz asked the politician via social media whether he would “regulate, if necessary censor, and in extreme cases ban” the website's activities, Günther replied without hesitation that he would, justifying it with concern for freedom and democracy.
The Die Linke party wants to “put an end” to the Apollo News portal and “put pressure” on its editors. Every politician who answers questions from a right-wing media, such as Tichys Einblick, must later refute harsh criticismthat he gave him a statement at all. The fact that members of the federal government, as well as the main political parties, prohibit some media from participating in party trips or conventions because of their relationship, he is met with indifference.
In short: what in the case of Donald Trump is rightly considered political pressure and treated as an abuse of power is too often downplayed in Germany as an understandable concern for democracy.
What if Donald Trump did it?
Maybe a question here will help: what if Donald Trump did it? Let's imagine that the president of the United States announces plans to establish one across the country centers for reporting irregularitiesin which citizens can accuse others of non-criminal acts, e.g. different views.
Let's imagine that Donald Trump writes in his election program that: in the case of spreading “false statements”, freedom of speech does not apply and those who do so must face the consequences.
Let's imagine that American prosecutors laughingly tell us how police officers confiscate the mobile phones of shocked citizens and search their homes because of allegedly criminal entries on the Internet.
Let's imagine Donald Trump he categorically refuses to give interviews to leftist mediaand his administration refuses to take their journalists on any trips.
If all this were to worry us about the state of freedom of speech in the US, these events should also give us food for thought in Germany. Protecting democracy by limiting its many freedoms is not the right approach.
