Media representatives are only allowed to attend the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance’s founding party conferences in Bremen and Lower Saxony for a short period of time, which the German Journalists’ Association sees as a restriction of press freedom.
This weekend, Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) members will gather in Bremen and Lower Saxony for the first state party conference of the association. According to the invitations, journalists are only allowed to attend the 30-minute morning and afternoon press conferences. “The remaining meetings will be held in private,” the invitations read.
“Restrictions on freedom of the press”
It is an unusual procedure at a party congress. Normally, journalists are allowed to follow such events in their entirety. The exclusion leads to misunderstandings and criticism. The German Journalists’ Association (DJV) sees it as a restriction on freedom of the press. “Critical reporting is only possible if the party congress is fully accompanied,” Christiane Eickmann, managing director of the DJV Lower Saxony, told the Braunschweiger Zeitung.
Bremen BSW state leader Christopher Schulze explained the exclusion of the press by saying that the members, many of whom are newcomers to politics, were able to get to know each other in a confidential atmosphere. The results of the state executive elections will be announced at a press conference later. “This procedure only applies to the founding meeting,” Schulze said. “Party meetings where the program is discussed or the lists of candidates for the elections are drawn up are completely open to the press.”
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Holger Onken, the BSW’s Lower Saxony representative, made a similar statement, noting that the founding party conference was a special meeting. “There are many people who have never been in politics,” he said. That’s why the atmosphere of secrecy is important.
The BSW officially founded the party early this year and is currently expanding its organization throughout Germany. There are already regional associations in Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia, Berlin, Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt. In the elections in Saxony and Thuringia earlier this month, the party won double-digit victories and is now playing a decisive role in forming the government.
