On the margins of the Compact case
Imagine that in the early hours of the morning, masked TEK officers knock on the door of Stock Richárd, holding a search warrant issued by Minister Pintér. Stock quickly tries to put something on his pajamas or naked body, while the TEK officers already invade his apartment and search everything, despite his protests. They scatter books, papers, files on the floor, looking for evidence, because the CEO of Klubrádió and his team spread left-wing propaganda, hate speech, and pamphlets to overthrow the system. The raid is extensive, with four hundred people deployed, confiscating the studio equipment, taking the computers, technical equipment, cash, freezing the bank account of Klubrádió, and with the evidence in hand, immediately banning the radio station that influences the masses of the opposition. Minister Pintér only informs the pro-government press about the raid on time, the cameras click in the dawn light, the reports are being prepared, so that by the time the Hungarian people wake up from their innocent dreams, they hear, see what the wicked opposition has prepared. But thanks to the vigilance of the Ministry of the Interior, the homeland has been saved!
Imagine what the free and independent Western world would say about all this. I can already see the headlines in the newspapers about the Hungarian dictatorship, abuses, the government’s anti-democratic attempts, trampling on the rule of law, and hear the moral outrage in a condescending tone. In the European Parliament, a debate is held on the violence against the free Hungarian press, and a new Article 7 procedure is already underway.
I described a true event, every element is true, just the location and participants need to be changed. Because just two weeks ago, a large-scale raid was conducted on the apartments of the editor-in-chief of the opposition Compact Magazine in Germany and some of his colleagues, as well as in the magazine editorial office, on the instructions of the German Federal Minister of the Interior, following the described procedure. As a consequence of the house searches, the printed and online versions of Compact were immediately banned, as well as its online programs and interviews. For example, the interview with the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, was conducted on the Saturday before the Tuesday raid. In the hour and a half podcast, Zakharova said interesting things, such as that gas does not come to Germany because the Americans forbade it, and just to be sure, they also blew up the gas pipeline. Such things should not be discussed in Germany. Rumor has it that on Monday morning a crisis team met in the Ministry of the Interior (they do not work on weekends), and a 90-page script was prepared with the title “how to get rid of dangerous Compact”.
The Compact has long been classified as the mouthpiece of the far-right populist party AfD and the anti-Islam Pegida movement in politics and government-controlled media. Due to its revisionist, anti-Semitic, anti-migration, and conspiracy theory-filled content, Compact has been classified as far-right by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, its employees were monitored with spy software, and their information was collected with intelligence tools. It was discovered that the magazine was “a platform for the enemies of democracy, those who want to destroy German liberal society.” It became unsustainable that more and more people read and watch its media products, and their influence on society grew. The condemning and stigmatizing descriptors began to multiply around them, becoming constant terms, without which it was no longer possible to talk about Compact. Its readers were also stigmatized because bad company corrupts good morals. I would add that Compact was a populist magazine, aiming to reach the masses with its writings, not the more discerning right-wing readers.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the magazine violates the free, democratic order, and human dignity. It acts in an “aggressive and militant” manner, refers to Germany as a vaccination dictatorship since Covid, incites hatred against migrants, and lately spreads pro-Russian propaganda.
It was the last time in 1962 in Germany that a newspaper was banned. The Spiegel wrote then that the German army’s equipment makes the country unfit for defense and criticized Defense Minister Franz Joseph Strauss. It is true that this fact was determined by NATO during a military exercise, but it was considered confidential information. The article was considered treason, and Spiegel was immediately banned. At that time, social solidarity and democracy still worked, the other newspapers offered their own tools to Spiegel instead of the confiscated ones. The rough interference with press freedom caused a government crisis, which led to the resignation of Strauss and two other state secretaries.
There were also demands for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Nancy Fraser, by those who dare to demand anything at all. Because experienced journalists know what questions are allowed to be asked at a press conference, what boundaries must not be crossed, and what it is better to stay away from for their own sake. They know that critical journalism in Germany leads to isolation, job loss, bans, arrests, and confiscation of private property. Self-censorship is in operation, journalists ask predictable questions that do not deviate a centimeter from the topics within which the public discourse in Germany can move today. It is impossible to write critically about war, migration, or the social danger of gender propaganda. Simply put, you cannot have an opinion that differs from the official one.
Nevertheless, a few brave press workers and constitutional lawyers see Nancy Fraser as having exceeded her competence, as theoretically Germany is a constitutional state, and neither the minister, nor the entire government, nor even the Bundestag can be above the Basic Law. Its fifth chapter clearly formulates that everyone has the right to express and disseminate their opinion freely in speech, writing, and images. The freedom of all kinds of media is guaranteed, censorship has no place.
Now the debate is about how to justify the Minister of the Interior’s illegal steps for and against. Constitutional lawyers have doubts about the legality of the step. According to the AfD and its press, the government acted arbitrarily with the ban, trampling on freedom of speech and the press. Legally, it is irrelevant how anyone, even the minister, judges the content of Compact Magazine. Because the freedom of expression is a fundamental right and allows political agitation, the struggle for another political order, activities that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution may consider unconstitutional. Both left-wing and right-wing radicalism are allowed, only crimes are not allowed. The Minister of the Interior states that Compact did not commit a crime, but it must be feared that its publications calling for the overthrow of the political order “could incite its viewers and encourage them to take action against the constitutional order.”.
All this is German internal business, the scandal remains within the borders, no one rushes to Brussels to report the otherwise unpopular German government.
However, the editor-in-chief of Compact Magazine filed a criminal complaint against Minister Fraser and several officials. They accuse them of suppressing freedom of the press and violating official secrets. Because only they could have informed the media about the raid. I am curious about the verdict. They will not rush it, as there will be elections in three eastern German states in September. The ban on Compact carries a veiled threat: this is what will happen to anyone who supports the (far) right. This is how a democratic rule of law works in Europe today.
The author is a historian
Rab Írén
💘love it
💘love it
😡infuriating
😡infuriating
