Germany’s troublesome right-wing media outlets.

Aggressively expanding right-wing news sites are posing a challenge to traditional media agencies in Germany.

Alternative news outlets cater to readers disillusioned by consensus-driven journalism. 

Background

A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, or news service. 

Germany has faced a resurgence of extremist ideologies ever since the refugee crisis began in 2015. Chancellor Angela Merkel enjoyed an unparalleled reputation and the media were largely supportive of her decision to open German borders to refugees. However, the subsequent mismanagement of the refugee issues has prompted a backlash from right-leaning news agencies. They have been critical of Merkel and her policies, and are against the centrist-liberal agenda of the CDU-led government. 

Analysis

Tichys Einblick or “Tichys Insight” is a highly opinionated, right-leaning news website hugely popular with German conservatives. Started by Roland Tichy, former editor of business magazine Wirtschaftswoche and the enemy of Germany’s politically correct, consensus-driven style of journalism. 

Tichys Einblick is among a crop of alternative news outlets making headway in Germany, where a growing number of readers feel that the traditional press is too loyal to Angela Merkel, the long-serving chancellor, and her brand of moderate, centrist politics.  The new outlets’ relevance is increasing as political divisions in Germany deepen, a trend highlighted by far-right demonstrations in Chemnitz following the arrest of two asylum seekers in connection with the murder of a man in the city last month.

Such new media are growing across the western world. In the US, alt-right website Breitbart News and Fox News are the go-to media for Trump-voting conservatives who perceive left-wing bias in “mainstream media”. Germany’s media landscape is less polarised: more than 10m people, or about 12% of the population, still watch Tagesschau, the daily 8 pm news programme on the leading television channel ARD.

Nevertheless, a minority feels that the established media are too pro-government — a trend that peaked during the refugee crisis of 2015, when most newspapers, TV and radio stations backed Ms. Merkel’s decision to keep Germany’s borders open.  “It’s a strange form of journalism when journalists defend the government,” said Mr. Tichy.

A study by the Hamburg Media School and Leipzig University released last year found German media were generally too uncritical in covering the crisis. “Up until late autumn 2015, hardly any editorials dealt with the concerns, fears and also the resistance of a growing part of the population,” the report found. It said that this contributed to distrust of the traditional media, often referred to as the “Lügenpresse” or “lying press” by the German right. In a survey released this February by the University of Mainz, 17% of respondents did not trust the media at all. 

Older media, already suffering from falling circulation, are on the defensive. When the news magazine Der Spiegel recently asked for readers’ opinions of its journalism, many of the 3,000 replies were highly critical and accused journalists of being cut off. 

Other new media are much more markedly right wing. They include Compact, which calls itself the “magazine for sovereignty”; the conservative nationalist Junge Freiheit (“Young Freedom”); and the rambunctious PI-News (as in politically incorrect).

Assessment

Our assessment is that the frequent attack on the fourth estate is meant to undermine the spirit of liberalism that is guaranteed in a democratic society. The press plays a vital role in highlighting injustices that are meted out to civil societies. We believe that populist leaders will continue to discredit traditional media and the challenge will be for the larger society to counter them. However, we also feel that the rising right-wing news media outlets have carved a market of their own and it makes clever business sense for media houses to tap into this segment.