Medienanstalt NRW refrains from taking any action against podcaster Ben Berndt

The NRW media authority had criticized a Höcke interview by podcaster Ben Berndt. Now she is refraining from taking further measures - although Berndt has not changed the controversial passage.

Dusseldorf. The NRW State Media Authority does not want to take any further action for the time being in the dispute with podcaster Ben Berndt over an interview with the Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke. The authority announced that it had completed its review. The reason was what the media authority believed to be a false statement of facts by Höcke, which went uncommented in the conversation that lasted more than four hours.

Höcke said in the podcast “Unscripted by Ben” that the SA had no slogan or motto. The media authority therefore wrote to Berndt in June and asked for a statement. She saw evidence of a breach of journalistic duty of care and considered it necessary to classify the statement retrospectively.

Berndt had rejected a change to the podcast episode and announced that, if necessary, he would take legal action against further steps by the authority. He also rejects that his interview format is subject to journalistic due diligence.

Nothing has changed in the basic assessment of the media agency, its director Tobias Schmid told the German Press Agency. “The statement that the SA had no motto is simply wrong and that should have been included in a journalistic and editorial offer.”

What is crucial, however, is that Berndt himself gave the issue great public attention after the media authority's tip-off. "Pretty much everyone would have noticed that Mr. Höcke's statement was wrong. This means that the legislator's goal has been achieved," said Schmid.

The legal regulation is not intended to ensure that a journalist changes his or her opinion. Rather, the public should be protected from demonstrably false information. The media authority points out that Höcke's statement was comprehensively processed and corrected as a result of the debate.

Schmid rejected the impression that the media authority had caved in to public pressure with its decision. “Such an incident is not a schoolyard brawl.” It's all about the public being able to recognize that Höcke was telling an untruth. “How you get there is relatively irrelevant to the legislature and therefore to us too.”

Dispute over journalistic standards

The media authority continues to stick to its assessment that Berndt's podcast is a journalistic-editorial offering and is therefore subject to the corresponding due diligence obligations of the State Media Treaty.

Berndt told the dpa in July that he did not see himself as a journalist, but as a host. “I have no idea what journalistic standards are,” he said at the time. He wants to have conversations “like when you meet for coffee” and get to know people as honestly as possible.

Berndt had announced legal action in the event of further demands from the media company. "If in doubt, we will also go to the Federal Court of Justice. On behalf of all podcasters and YouTubers and in the spirit of freedom of expression and freedom of the press," he told the dpa at the time.