Germany has banned a far-right magazine accusing it of being a "mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene" and inciting hatred of Jews and foreigners..
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned Compact magazine and the company that publishes it, Compact-Magazin GmbH, as well as a film production company, Conspect Film.
Masked police officers were pictured on Tuesday searching properties related to the organisations in four German states: Brandenburg, Hesse, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. The raid aimed to confiscate assets and evidence, the ministry said.
The magazine was designated as a proven right-wing extremist publication by the country’s domestic intelligence agency in 2021 for disseminating conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination propaganda and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic narratives. It is viewed by many as a mouth piece of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s radical wing.
Ms Faeser claimed right-wing extremism was the greatest radical threat to German democracy ahead of next year’s federal election. The AfD took second place in the European Union parliamentary elections despite being plagued by scandals. Its lead candidate had to step back from campaigning after declaring that the Nazis’ main paramilitary force, were “not all criminals”.
The ban on Compact Magazine shows “that we are also taking action against the intellectual arsonists who are stirring up a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and want to overcome our democratic state,” Ms Faeser added.
The magazine also has an online shop which, among other things, sells a coin with the image of AfD politician Björn Höcke. The interior ministry said the monthly magazine, founded in 2010, was a central part of the New Right network and had close links to the Identitarian Movement and other far-right groups.
Compact magazine's editor-in-chief, Juergen Elsaesser, said the ban was "dictatorial" and represented the worst attack on German press freedom in decades.
"You are treating us like a mafia, like a terrorist group. But we are a legal press organ with a clean criminal record," he told Reuters TV. "This makes it clear that the only aim is to destroy the opposition and us as the strongest media. We are already in contact with lawyers."
AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla condemned the ban, saying Ms Faeser had abused her powers. "We call on the minister to respect freedom of the press," they said in a joint statement.
Hans-Christoph Berndt, the AfD's leader in the Brandenburg regional parliament, linked the timing of the ban to September elections in three eastern states, including Brandenburg.
Media bans are relatively rare in Germany, which places a high value on press freedom and ranks 10th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders' world press freedom index.
In its annual report for 2023, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said that the magazine “regularly disseminates ... antisemitic, anti-minority, historically revisionist and conspiracy theory content.” It said a main feature is agitation against parliamentary democracy in general and the German government in particular. It quoted Elsässer as saying that “we want to topple this regime.”
Compact can file an appeal against the ban with the Federal Administrative Court.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
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