‘Politically Correct Gibberish’ – German Public Broadcaster Accused of Wanting to ‘Cover Up’ Migrant Riots

03 January 2023, Berlin: A burnt-out coach stands in Berlin-Neukölln. The coach was compl
Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

A public broadcaster in Germany has been accused of trying to “cover up” migrant riots in Berlin on New Year’s Eve.

Tagesschau, a public news broadcaster in Germany, has come under fire for its coverage of riots that took place in Berlin during New Year’s Eve, with one publication going so far as to accuse the broadcaster of trying to “cover up” the large proportion of migrants involved in the violence.

Although other elements within the country’s political sphere have tried to shift the focus of the riots to the issue of banning fireworks under the auspices that this would reduce violence, even some of the more hardline senior left-wing politicians in the country have since admitted that many involved in the violence are young men with migrant backgrounds.

According to a report by Bild, Tagesschau repeatedly avoided making reference to the sizable migrant involvement in the violence, with the broadcaster even reportedly claiming that “most” of those arrested in relation to the violence were German.

However, Bild has labelled this claim as being “simply wrong”, with multiple sources — including Tagesschau itself — having since confirmed that only 45 of the 145 arrested hold a German passport.

Bild has also accused the public broadcaster of editing a statement made by a Berlin firefighter in one of its reports so as to exclude the part where he claims that the individuals at the centre of the violence were “adolescents, mostly with a migration background”.

Instead, a spokeswoman for Tagesschau is said to have just said that the perpetrators were male “adolescents and young adults”.

Others have taken to attacking Tagesschau for their allegedly selective reporting of the violence, with one former showrunner for the broadcaster labelling their journalism as “politically correct gibberish”, while other politicians within legacy parties accused the broadcaster of bias.

“This is how you build up prejudices and not break them down,”  Stefan Müller MP of the Christian Social Union told Bild, before alleging that the public news outlet “manipulates interviews for ideological reasons”.

If such an accusation against the public broadcaster proves to be correct, it will not be the first time that the German media appeared to try to cover up migrant violence.

Most infamously, the country’s national media remained eerily silent after over 1,000 migrants took to the streets of Cologne to sexually assault women on New Year’s Eve in 2016, with The Times reporting that the story only really gained the attention of the general public after social media posts and news reports by Breitbart brought the issue to light.

However, although there remains a certain amount of focus on auxiliary issues, such as banning fireworks in the hopes of stopping violence, there appears to be far less appetite to ignore the migrant element involved in this recent violence than there was in 2016, with even some of Germany’s more left-wing politicians openly linking the violent scenes to Berlin’s migrant population.

“We have a big problem in German cities with certain young men with a migration background who despise our state, commit acts of violence and are hardly reached with education and integration programs,” Germany’s Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser — a woman who previously penned an article for a publication openly called “Antifa” — said.

“We have to clearly show those who refuse to integrate violence in our cities the limits: with a firm hand and clear language — but without stirring up racist resentment,” she reportedly went on to add.

 

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