Daniel Günther, the Conservative Prime Minster of the German State of Schleswig-Holstein, has come under fire for publicly embracing censorship of critical news sites and social media.
Prominent media lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel called Günther “an arsonist masking as a good citizen while declaring war on the freedom of the press”, Welt reported today.
He said Günther was apparently regarding the free press as a security risk that had to be managed by the State.
Wolfgang Kubicki, a Liberal politician from Schleswig-Holstein and former vice president of the German Bundestag, or federal parliament, wrote on X yesterday: “This is absolutely unacceptable, authoritarian nonsense from Daniel Günther. Hands off the freedom of the press!”
Public law professor Volker Boehme-Neßler accused Günther of trying to implement “psychological censorship”.
“I am horrified by how little understanding of media freedom a German Prime Minister had”, he added.
On January 7, Günther, a prominent politician with the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, had joined the talk show Markus Lanz on State broadcasting station ZDF, originally to talk about the danger of a US annexation of Greenland.
Günther, though, used the opportunity to lash out at Germany’s main opposition party, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, as well as at critical news media and US-run social media platforms.
“We are allowing our youth to be infiltrated via US tech companies who of course do not have the best for our democracy in mind”, he said. He added that US Vice President JD Vance was “also behind this”.
Günther called for a ban on social media for under-16-year-olds as well as a “digital tax” on social media companies. The proceeds from this tax should be used to subsidise “traditional media in our country”, he said.
Not all German media found favour with the Prime Minister of Germany’s northernmost State, though.
“Some media dabble in political agitation rather than journalism”, Günther said. “Whenever our coalition [of CDU and Social Democrats] got into difficulties, this always had to with the fact that politics is being influenced by how certain media are trying to push their own political agenda.”
Asked by the moderator who exactly he was referring to, Günther mentioned Nius, an online news portal founded in 2022 which is popular with German conservatives and right-wingers.
Günther was outraged that people in his own party were “reading such portals and sharing their content in WhatsApp groups”.
“We have to wake up that these are our enemies and the enemies of democracy,” he added.
“We have to stop the infighting that gives fodder to these media. This is the way to keep extremists small and get back to stability in Germany.”
The moderator then asked him: “So you are saying: We have to regulate this, censor this and in the most extreme case even ban it?” Günther answered with a resounding “yes”, adding: “It is not only politics’ task to protect our democracy. All civil institutions must also come out in favour of democracy.”
Brussels Signal reached out to Günther and the CDU Schleswig-Holstein but had not heard back at the time of writing.
