Compact magazine: Press freedom triumphs in court as German minister battles to keep it in cooler

Admin I Friday, August 16, 2024

 

LEIPZIG – German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Thursday defended the government’s ban on the far-right Compact magazine, a day after a court provisionally lifted the measure.

Faeser said Germany’s Basic Law “expressly provides an instrument to ban organizations in order to protect democracy from enemies of the constitution.”

Speaking in Berlin, Faeser said her ministry would not back down in the case, which is being considered by Germany’s Federal Administrative Court in the eastern city of Leipzig.

In an expedited ruling on Wednesday, the court raised doubts about the proportionality of the ban and allowed Compact to resume publishing under certain conditions, ahead of a final decision in main proceedings.

Faeser first banned Compact on July 16, justifying the move by describing the publication as a “central mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene.”

Following the ruling, Faeser admitted the Interior Ministry had “lost in parts,” but said the court’s decision was “a completely normal process” under Germany’s constitutional democracy.