Insults, car damaged
Reporter attacked at AfD event in Thuringia
November 18, 2023, 5:28 p.m
On Thursday evening, a reporter from the “Ostthüringer Zeitung” was at an AfD event in Plothen to report on it. When he left the hall, he was first insulted and then beaten. The incident caused outrage.
An attack on a journalist on the sidelines of an AfD event in Thuringia sparked outrage. The Thuringian Left co-chair Ulrike Grosse-Röthig spoke of an “attack on our democracy and the constitutional right to freedom of the press.” The state press conference – an association of political journalists – wrote on X: “Freedom of the press is not negotiable. Anyone who sees it differently is endangering democracy.”
The “Ostthüringer Zeitung” reported that its reporter was first insulted and then beaten as he left the event hall on Thursday evening on the sidelines of an AfD event in Plothen. In addition, his headgear was removed. When he wanted to drive off in the car, he discovered four sunk screws in his tires.
Christoph Rüth, managing director of the Funke media group, which publishes the “Ostthüringer Zeitung”, condemned the attack: “Our reporters are being actively prevented from doing their work. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated and certainly not threatened!”
According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Thuringian AfD is right-wing extremist
The police confirmed a complaint about the damage to the car. There is therefore no report of a physical attack on the journalist. The MDR quoted a spokesman for the Funke media group as saying that the reporter was unable to identify his attacker. That’s why he decided not to press charges for assault. According to the “Ostthüringer Zeitung”, the Saalfeld criminal police are now investigating.
Meanwhile, Thuringia’s AfD state spokesman Stefan Möller explained that a politically critical attitude towards a press or broadcasting institution cannot automatically be interpreted as a call for violence. But the AfD is trying to do that. He further wrote to X that this act was “despicable and completely unacceptable.”
The Thuringian AfD is classified and monitored by the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution as definitely right-wing extremist. According to the Funke media group, the journalist in question had already been attacked once – by the then mayor of Bad Lobenstein at a market festival. The mayor was then suspended. The case made headlines across the country. According to his own words, the mayor felt provoked by the journalist, but denied an attack.