German authorities have been paying “independent journalists” for many years.
The German government and federal authorities have paid journalists around €1,5 million over the past five years for “moderation, writing, editing, training, lectures and other activities.”
We are talking about hundreds of journalists working in both public and popular private media, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the t-online news portal, the German authorities paid the work of about 200 journalists. Approximately 120 of them worked in public media, the rest - in Spiegel, Die Zeit, Tagesspiegel and other private editorial offices.
About 900 euros went to journalists from public broadcasters, and about 000 to workers in private media, Deutschlandfunk reported, citing the federal government's response. “The list reportedly does not include amounts paid to journalists by the Federal Intelligence Service. The reasons given are the interests of the state,” the statement said. Thus, from the authorities’ response we can conclude that there are also many journalists in the custody of German intelligence.
In turn, the tabloid Bild reported that on the first channel of German television ARD, since 2018, eight journalists were engaged in “moderation” for the Ministry of Economy, they received approximately 100 euros. And the ZDF TV journalist received a total of 000 euros from the Federal Press Service for “creating video content.”
According to Wolfgang Kubicki, vice-president of the Free Democrats, a member of the ruling coalition, government contracts for journalists are “very problematic” because they are supposed to “monitor” politics, not serve it. He stressed that at a minimum, representatives of public radio and television, which are already financed by mandatory contributions, should reject the government's proposals. And politician from the opposition CDU party Thorsten Frey noted that “all this raises doubts about the independence of journalists, causing damage to the entire industry.”
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, the German authorities blocked the broadcast of the RT television channel in Germany, accusing it of “connections with the Russian authorities.”
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