July 4, 2025

At the NATO conference in The Hague, Netherlands, June 24-25, most European NATO members committed to a major increase in military spending, jumping from 2% to 5% of the annual Gross Domestic Product. The working class of Europe faces imminent cuts to social services, as the money spent on weapons must come from somewhere.

The German regime is repressing media that report the truth about these plans, especially with regard to Palestine, as is shown in the excerpts from the following two articles in junge Welt, which is the most broadly read Marxist-oriented newspaper in the leading European Union banking, industrial, arms manufacturing and soon military power, Germany. The truth junge Welt publishes interferes with business and war. Translation: John Catalinotto

junge Welt: Press unwanted at Humboldt University

In a letter dated June 23, 2025, Humboldt University in Berlin (HU) banned a journalist from the daily newspaper junge Welt from entering the university premises and using its facilities for several years. The colleague in question is alleged to have participated in an occupation of the Emil Fischer lecture hall on April 16.

The letter has been in junge Welt’s possession since June 26 and claims that around 80 people caused damage worth 200,000 euros in the lecture hall, permanently preventing courses planned there from taking place. The jW journalist is ultimately accused of having “significantly impaired important public interests in the realization of the university’s institutional purpose.” According to the letter, the ban on entering HU premises applies to “all” HU properties until July 31, 2028.

This is what really happened on the day in question: The person concerned was reporting on the lecture hall occupation by Palestine solidarity activists and was clearly identified as such. He was wearing a bright safety vest belonging to the German Journalists’ Union (DJU) in the Verdi trade union and was able to show his press card.

Together with two other journalists, including a press photographer working for junge Welt, the jW reporter was arrested by the police and locked in a cage for hours — presumably to prevent troublesome press witnesses from observing the subsequent violent clearing of the lecture hall.

Daniel Bratanovic, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper junge Welt, said on Thursday [June 26] in Berlin: “It says a lot about the state of this country when the police’s obstruction and prevention of press work is now also supplemented by such bans imposed by a university administration. It is worrisome that attacks on press freedom have been noted for some time and are now intensifying.”

junge Welt: No place to call home in Germany

Weekend insert to junge Welt, June 28-29: Journalist Hüseyin Doğru is considered an outlaw. But so far, no one has been able to prove that he has committed a crime. Nevertheless, his name is on the EU’s sanctions list against Russia.

Hüseyin Doğru, founder of the media project Red Media, which is currently in liquidation, is one of three German journalists named in the European Union’s 17th package of sanctions — and the only one of those affected who lives in Germany.

The reasons given for sanctioning Doğru include that his reporting on the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany sows “ethnic, political and religious discord” and thus aids “Russia’s destabilizing activities.”

The sanctions have existential consequences for Doğru. Not only his account but also that of his pregnant spouse have been frozen, even though she is not named on the list. His freedom of movement is restricted. He is also not allowed to take up employment as a journalist — for example, at the daily newspaper junge Welt — as this would violate the prohibition on providing services, according to an assessment by the Federal Ministry of Economics.

The EU prides itself on its commitment to press freedom, but the “sanctions list is now also being used to criminalize critical reporting,” comments Ruth Firmenich, Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht [political party] member of the EU Parliament, in response to a question from jW. Through these measures, the EU is destroying “the lives and professional livelihoods of those affected” and hopes to have a “deterrent effect on other journalists.”

There will be a panel discussion of these and other cases of restriction of freedom of the press on July 3 in Berlin: Event “EU Truth Regime vs Freedom of the Press.”