A new ruling means that police statements in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia will soon have to reveal the nationality of suspects – regardless of whether they are German nationals or foreigners.
With the media decree, State interior minister Herbert Reul of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said he wanted to increase transparency regarding crime, German news outlet WDR reported on July 29.
Reul said he aimed to push through the necessary amendments in the autumn of this year.
The move further seeks to address allegations that law enforcement has been attempting to suppress information.
In 2011, the then-North Rhine-Westphalia government passed the current media legislation. It determined that: “Membership of a minority is only referred to in internal and external reporting if it is absolutely necessary for the understanding of a fact or for the establishment of a factual reference.”
It wanted to avoid mentioning nationality because it said that could lead to the “discriminatory generalisation of individual misconduct”.
The previous rules were based on the German Press Code.
Under that decree, a suspect’s nationality was rarely disclosed by authorities, even if it was deemed to be in the public interest. In practice, such was only shared occasionally when a German suspect was involved.
That led to critics accusing police and media of promoting their own prejudices.
After the ruling is implemented, suspects’ nationalities will be shared publicly by default, regardless of whether they are Germans or foreigners.
A suspect’s nationality will only be withheld in North Rhine-Westphalia if the responsible public prosecutor’s office chooses not to reveal it. In that instance, the relevant police authorities’ press offices should do the same.
According to the latest official numbers from the State police, 35 per cent of suspects allegedly involved in the total of 484,642 registered crimes in 2023 did not have German passports.
Some 40 per cent of multiple offenders, 9,538, were deemed non-German.
Across German States, there is significant variation in policies regarding the disclosure of suspects’ nationalities. Some automatically release that information, while others withhold it as a matter of principle.
The hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been requesting the names of alleged criminals for some years in its parliamentary questions in a bid to discover the origins of suspects.
Pro-migrant and pro-refugee organisations, on the other hand, have claimed that providing suspects’ nationalities strengthens prejudices, fuels migration fears and promotes racism.
