The district court of Karlsruhe has not accepted the charges of the public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe against the author of an online article because of the link to the archive of the banned association “linksunten.indymedia”. This is reported by Radio Dreyeckland (RDL), where the editor is employed and the article was published. The Society for Freedom Rights speaks of a groundbreaking decision. It was also determined that the raids on apartments and business premises in January were illegal. The regional court ordered the copies of the confiscated data carriers to be deleted.
Links as part of the journalistic tasks
The civil rights activists of the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF) supported the radio station in the legal process and call the decision from Karlsruhe a “signal for free and critical press reporting throughout Germany”. It had been established that the setting of links belongs to the protected area of free reporting and media for linked content “cannot be prosecuted without further ado”. This had already been publicly pointed out in January, also because not only the radio station but also media throughout Germany linked to the site.
The searches of Radio Dreyeckland’s business premises were declared illegal, as were the raids on the private rooms of employees. The much-criticized measure was justified with a link in an online article. This led to that article archive and was rated as illegal redistribution. With the legal action, however, the Society for Freedom Rights wanted to win a precedent and, if necessary, take it to the Constitutional Court. That probably won’t be necessary. However, the public prosecutor’s office can still appeal against the non-admission. However, a decision has yet to be taken on the complaints lodged by those affected against the search and seizure decisions.
The internet platform “linksunten.indymedia” was seen by the security authorities as the most influential medium of the left-wing extremist scene in Germany – and as a forum for violent autonomists. The security authorities used a trick in the ban procedure: Formally, it was a ban on a club – the operators were classified by the authorities as a club. On the other hand, several people filed a lawsuit, but they denied the existence of the association. That’s why they failed in 2020 before the Federal Administrative Court for formal reasons, because “regularly only the association” is authorized to challenge such a ban. Radio Dreyeckland is the oldest free radio station in Germany; it emerged in the 1980s from the anti-nuclear movement.
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