Courts involved in dispute between AfD and ARD "Monitor"
The legal dispute between the AfD Thuringia and the ARD political magazine "Monitor" over coverage of the state party conference continues to grow. The AfD had denied the journalists access, and the public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), which is responsible for the magazine, took legal action. The party conference, which lasted several days, began in the early afternoon in Pfiffelbach, Thuringia. The situation remained unclear.
After the Erfurt Regional Court initially issued a temporary injunction against the AfD on Thursday and ordered that the "Monitor" journalists must be granted access after all, the same court scheduled an oral hearing for Friday afternoon because the AfD had objected. A result was not yet known in the afternoon.
The Thuringian Constitutional Court also dealt with the case. The AfD Thuringia, which is classified by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia as right-wing extremist, had turned to the court.
The constitutional judges granted the party's application for a temporary injunction and temporarily suspended the effectiveness of the regional court's injunction. According to the Constitutional Court, the AfD argued that they had not been heard by the regional court before the injunction was issued. The Constitutional Court also emphasized in its statement: "The Constitutional Court has not made a decision on whether and under what conditions the press must be granted or denied access to party meetings." The decision cannot be appealed.
AfD: "Plump propaganda"
On Wednesday, it became known that the ARD "Monitor" team had been denied permission by the party to report on the state party conference, unlike other media. "Monitor" director Georg Restle had criticized the party's decision as an "oath of revelation by an extreme right-wing AfD state association, which shows what the party thinks of critical journalism and freedom of opinion in this country".
Stefan Möller, state spokesperson for the AfD in Thuringia, published his reasons for the exclusion of the "Monitor" team on the platform X, formerly Twitter. In it, he emphasized that it was in the party's interest for party conferences to be reported on. Acceptance ends "when there can no longer be any talk of journalistic reporting". Möller also wrote of "crude propaganda".
The public broadcaster WDR had stated that it was highly questionable that "a party represented in parliament denies journalists access to a party conference because it does not agree with the reporting".
- The ongoing dispute between the AfD and ARD's "Monitor" raised concerns about media access and freedom of the press, with the Erfurt Regional Court initially granting access but later suspension of its decision by the Thuringian Constitutional Court.
- The AfD State Party Conference in Thuringia was a subject of controversy, as ARD's "Monitor" was denied access, leading to accusations of "plump propaganda" by the AfD and criticism from WDR, which considered it questionable for a parliament-represented party to deny journalists access to a conference.
- The legal battle between the AfD and ARD's "Monitor" over coverage of the state party conference highlighted the tension between parties, media outlets, and the right to report on political events.
- The Thuringian political landscape was under scrutiny with the high-profile dispute between the AfD and ARD's "Monitor" over access to the state party conference, affecting both broadcasting and justice in the region.
Source: www.dpa.com
