Media Intimidation in Germany: ‘A regular act of making life difficult for journalists by causing fear’

If you are not a journalist in Germany, and if you believe Reporters Without Borders that Germany has the 11th-most free media of any country in the world, then you very likely have no idea – and you would have trouble believing – that journalists here are routinely intimidated, threatened, censored and sued.

There are no known statistics to officially document this problem. But it is very real, and the harm it does to the integrity of news, the quality of democracy, and the vitality of citizen participation in Europe’s politically and economically most important country is severe.

Political pressure on the media is a way of life in Germany. Many of the largest national and regional media outlets are publicly funded and thus under the influence of politicians and political parties. Germany’s weak conflict of interest laws permit Bundestag members and other elected officials to maintain outside business connections that often extend to newspapers, TV networks and radio stations.

Corporations, politicians and powerful people routinely deploy Germany’s retrograde defamation and privacy laws to intimidate and silence journalists. Defamation is still a criminal offense in Germany. Incredibly, journalists and anyone else for that matter can be held civilly liable for saying something if it hurts another person’s feelings – even if it is true.

Deutsche Bank strikes

Rainer Winters found out first-hand what can happen if you write something that bothers a German institution – even if the information is completely accurate. This is by far not the worst instance of journalist intimidation in Germany. But it is even more insidious than that. It is a textbook example of how powerful interests work every day to chill free media and free speech in Germany. They do it with impunity, without public notice, and seemingly without shame.

Winters is the founder and publisher of the independent news and information service ANA LOGO. Founded in 2014, ANA LOGO provides a unique combination of news, analysis and data on topics including environment, politics, science and transparency. Somewhat under the radar, it has become a trusted information source for journalists, policy-makers, activists and researchers.

Winters is no crank. He worked for Lufthansa for 18 years. He studied environmental sciences, political science and psychology at two German universities. He has been a budget analyst and environment advisor to national political parties, and a spokesperson for citizen referenda. He has been a member of the German Federation of Journalists and the Newspaper Publishers Association of North Germany. He has supported and volunteered for many community and civic organizations.

On 20 January 2015, Winters published an article about Deutsche Bank’s internal whistleblower policy. The document originally had been leaked to Thomas Leif, the chief reporter at Südwestrundfunk (Southwest Broadcasting; SWR), a public TV and radio station based in Stuttgart. Leif decided against publishing the document and gave it to Winters, who recalled the conversation: “He told me, ‘You had better get some backing, Without backing, you might be in trouble’.”

How right Leif turned out to be.

Winters’ phone rang the day after he published the article. It was Deutsche Bank calling. But it wasn’t a low-level staffer in the bank’s public relations office. It was Regina Schueller, the bank’s coordinator of global press relations. Winters was very surprised the bank saw the article – especially so quickly after it was published. “ANA LOGO did not have so many readers back then,” he says.

“She was tough,” Winters said of Schueller’s demeanor. “She did not ask me to change my article. She demanded it. She was very, very demanding about it. It was unbelievable.”

Schueller followed up her call with two e-mails to Winters. In the first one, she told him to “update your article accordingly.” Two weeks later she snapped at Winters, “This update has not yet occurred.”

‘I couldn’t sleep for two days’

Schueller’s commanding tone illustrates the expectations large German institutions have that journalists will do as they are instructed. But Winters did not comply. “I just listened. I didn’t tell her I would change the article or take it down. I didn’t give in.”

Still, as an independent journalist who lacked the legal protections and financial resources that media companies have at their disposal, Winters was understandably rattled.

“I couldn’t sleep for two days,” he said. “This was happening during the time of Edward Snowden. I thought this is the feeling you get if you write about whistleblowing. I thought this is kind of dangerous – you can’t just publish delicate information like this.”

Making the episode more surprising is the reason Schueller was complaining. It wasn’t because Winters’ article was inaccurate, but because it exposed major and potential harmful problems with Deutsche Bank’s staff whistleblower policy. He wrote – quite accurately – that the policy said bank employees “must report any violations,” and that staffers who don’t cooperate with whistleblower investigations can face “disciplinary measures up to the termination of the employment relationship.”

The policy was criticized by an official at the Data Protection Authority for the state of Hessen, who told Winters it could create a “high danger of exposing employees to inappropriate risks.”

The German Federation of Journalists advised Winters not to change the article and to leave it online. The organization said it would assist him if the problems with Deutsche Bank worsened. It also relayed a sobering truth to Winters, calling Schueller’s tactics “a regular act of making life difficult for journalists in Germany by causing fear.”

Schueller left Deutsche Bank a short time later and now works for the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority in Frankfurt. She would not comment on her interactions with Winters, saying she does “not talk about issues in connection with former employers.” Added Schueller, “To me press freedom is key and so is freedom of speech and expressing of personal opinion as well as the correct presentation of facts. The claim that I am putting pressure on journalists is false."