The question of whether the chats and e-mails of Springer boss Mathias Döpfner belong to the public or not has been occupying the industry since the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" published a selection of them in mid-April. In it, Döpfner had railed against "the Ossis" and Angela Merkel, among others, and asked the then "Bild" editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt: "Please strengthen the FDP". Now the German Press Council will also deal with it: At its next meeting on June 15, the association wants to examine a complaint that it received at the end of last week. "At the heart of our proceedings is the question of whether Döpfner's internal messages are of predominantly public interest or whether the publication violates his protection of personality under Section 8 of the Press Code," said the spokeswoman for the Press Council, Kirsten von Hutten.
The publication of the news had caused a lot of criticism at the time, the writer Nora Bossong, for example, described it as a "disservice to press freedom". In a podcast of the media blog "Übermedien", the two authors of the Döpfner article had rejected this criticism. "We deliberately did not publish private information," said author Cathrin Gilbert. Holger Stark, deputy editor-in-chief of Die Zeit, added that in his opinion it was a "non-public, but in any case a professional communication". If a boss suggests a political guideline to his employee, it is no longer private.
Holger Friedrich also under criticism
The Press Council will also decide on another question in connection with the Döpfner News on 15 June: whether the "Berliner Zeitung" has violated the protection of informants under Section 5 of the Press Code. According to his own statements, its publisher Holger Friedrich had passed on the name of an informant, the former editor-in-chief of "Bild" Julian Reichelt, to the Springer publishing house. Reichelt had previously offered Friedrich confidential information.
The German Press Council is the voluntary self-regulation of the print media and their online presences in Germany. On the basis of complaints, he checks compliance with ethical rules in journalism.