Merkel government condemns attack on film crew
May 4, 2020
Berlin prosecutors said Monday the dynamics and complexity of Friday's attack coupled with the need to interview numerous more witnesses and gather videoed evidence did not yet provide them with a reliable overview.
"The testimonies given so far do not give a consistent picture in all details," said prosecutors, who said they had, however, begun investigations against 15 persons.
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The crew, comprising German-Moroccan comedian Abdelkarim Zemhoute, camera colleagues, and three security guards, was on assignment for public ZDF television's heute show in Berlin's central Mitte district.
The popular weekly center-left satirical news summary is produced from Cologne for ZDF, Germany's second national channel based in Mainz in Rhineland Palatinate.
The heute show crew had reportedly just filmed a demonstration against Corona-pandemic strictures at Berlin's Rosa Luxembourg plaza, also attended by far-right populists and conspiracy theory advocates.
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Berlin police, who initially said they briefly detained six persons, including some from Berlin's "leftist scene," say Abdelkarim's team, while returning to its vehicle, was intercepted by 20 to 25 masked persons.
Five film team members were hospitalized but later discharged with injuries.
Strong condemnation
Joining a weekend outcry led by Germany's DJV journalist union, the German government on Monday said it condemned the attack in the "strongest terms."
"We see that extremists of all stripes literally trample on the freedom of the press, one of our most important fundamental rights, by using threats and violence against journalists," said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel and himself once a ZDF presenter.
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Already, federal interior minister Horst Seehofer had said that the state had a responsibility to ensure that the freedom of the press was guaranteed "at every moment and every location."
Those who attacked journalists "must experience the power of our constitutional state," added Seehofer.
Marlehn Thieme, the chair of ZDF's supervisory council comprising representatives from diverse branches of German society and business, said violence and extremism would not vanish amid the "Corona situation."
"It is therefore all the more important that public broadcasting counters this [trend] with its programing," through balance presentation of information as well as pointed satire, said Thieme.
Journalist slapped
In a further development Monday, Berlin police said they were investigating a police officer under suspicion of having struck a woman journalist in the face while on duty.
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Public Berlin-Brandenburg broadcasting said she had been part of a team filming an arrest late Friday in the city-state's Kreuzberg district where May 1 demonstrators scuffled with police.
The journalist suffered two broken teeth and facial bruising, said rbb Monday.
ipj/rc (epd, dpa, Reuters, AFP, KNA)