The number of attacks on journalists in Germany more than doubled in 2024 compared to the previous year. This emerges from a report on freedom of the press, which “Reporter Without Borders” (RSF) published on Tuesday. The non -governmental organization counted 89 attacks on journalists, including 75 physical acts of violence. In 2023 there were a total of 41 attacks. The figures presented indicate two focal points where violence against journalists appeared particularly strongly. Over half of the attacks passed in Berlin. With 38 attacks, most attacks on the edge of “Middle East demonstrations” also occurred, which means propalestinic rallies. 29 attacks were directed exclusively against two journalists, one of them is the “picture” reporter Iman Sefati. Demonstrators would have spit, beaten and kicked him and his colleagues, the photographer Yalcin Askin, among other things, the report says. Almost 40 percent of the nationwide physical acts of violence are eliminated by the two reporters. In addition to physical violence, some are said to have received death threats. Some reporters have also told RSF that, out of fear of attacks, they no longer report on protests of this kind. Especially after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1182 Israelis were murdered, the organization was repeatedly reported by a “strongly narrowed opinion corridor” at work on Israel and Palestine. According to RSF, among other things, foreign correspondents described “extremely lengthy control and negotiation processes with which Israeli warfare is criticized”. Statements of Palestinian sources and human rights organizations or the United Nations would always be questioned. According to reports, journalists were mostly in danger in reporting on the reporting of right -wing extremists and conspiracy theorists. The organization counted 21 attacks in this context last year, whereby it also indicates a presumably high number of unreported cases. Germany is 10 out of 180 states on the global ranking of freedom of the press, which is created annually by “Reporters Without Borders”. The list will be released on May 3.
