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Germany Bans its ‘GB News’ in Clampdown on Political Dissent

by Robert Kogon
17 November 2023 7:00 AM

On Tuesday, the German media oversight agency, the ZAK, announced that it was prohibiting broadcasting of the Austrian alternative TV channel AUF1 on German satellite television. AUF stands for Alternative Unabhängige Fernsehen or ‘Alternative Independent Television’.

The decision is ostensibly based on a technical violation: it is, more precisely, the Stuttgart-based television channel SRGT which is prohibited from broadcasting AUF1 programming in Germany. But, as reaction to the ban in the mainstream German media and from activist organisations makes clear, it is in fact the content of the programming that is at issue.

Thus, the self-described “citizens’ movement” Campact, which has campaigned for a prohibition of the channel, celebrated what it called a “victory against Right-wing extremism” by posting the below graphic on X.  The top line reads: “Success against Hate and Fake News on TV.” This is gleefully followed by “Far-Right TV-Network Shut Down!”, which is highlighted in red, and then “Our protest works! AUF1 is no longer allowed to broadcast in Germany”. This is all very reminiscent of the campaign against GB News in the U.K., a TV station which occupies a similar role of conservative dissent from the broadcast mainstream.

The selected, er, ‘hate’ figures featuring in the image include two prominent representatives of Germany’s AfD or Alternative for Germany party: Alice Weidel, the party Co-Chair, and Björn Höcke, the head of the party’s parliamentary group in the state of Thuringia. The AfD is under surveillance by the German domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, for suspicion of “extremism” and is regularly threatened with being banned. The regional party organisations in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, where the party enjoys the support of around one-third of the electorate according to the latest polling, have been officially classified as “far-Right” by the BfV.

But sandwiched between the two AfD politicians in the Campact graphic is none other than the former director of the BfV, Hans-Georg Maaßen! Maaßen headed the domestic intelligence agency, whose spying activities are largely devoted to ostensibly “combatting extremism”, from 2012 to 2018. But, in light of his frequent criticism of Government policy and the often heterodox positions he has adopted on a wide variety of subjects in the meanwhile, he has somehow now morphed into an emblem of alleged ‘extremism’ himself.

While its detractors accuse AUF1 of having provided a platform for the ‘far Right’, the channel has in fact, above all, made a name for itself in Austria and Germany for its critical coverage of and frank opposition to Covid-related measures. This is reflected in the below photo with which the German public broadcaster SWR illustrates an article on the banning of the Austrian channel. The SWR article also, incidentally, attempts to highlight the channels’ connections to the AfD and the “far Right”.

The posters, which include the AUF1 logo, read “No to forced vaccination!” and “The pandemic is over. Take off your masks!”

While the banning of AUF1 has been applauded by German activist groups and the mainstream media, there is less unanimity in social media. Thus, in a post which has garnered many hundreds of reposts and likes, X user ‘AntoineRichard’ comments:

Have you heard? #Auf1 has been shut down in Germany! But it’s also important to know that in the best Germany of all time there is no #censorship, but rather #freedomofspeech! This is something we can be really proud of!

This is followed by two emojis:

Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.

Tags: Cancel CultureCensorshipCOVID-19GB NewsGermanyLockdown ScepticsTelevision

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42 Comments
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Grim Ace
Grim Ace
1 year ago

Germany is reverting to type. An autocratic, command and control, socialist state. Hitler was a socialist (National Socialist German Workers Party – NSDAP in German) was rhe name of his party. Its policies were also very socialist; control of the economy, control by proxy of private companies, threats to companies and owners, control of trade unions, direction of culture and social life. How come we keep calling thr nazis right wing when this behaviouris classicly left wing? The left are linked with nazism as a brand of socialism in the leftist spectrum.
Germany seems to have simply imported east German communism into its politics since the Wall came down. We did not truly win the cold War because we did not stamp out the virus that causes socialism and communism. We lazily moved on leaving the virus to recover. Things will get dark in the west.

Last edited 1 year ago by Grim Ace
165
0
Free Lemming
Free Lemming
1 year ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

Agree. But it’s not just Germany in the grip of a socialist coupé, it’s most of the West. Their current go-to tool, and it’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer, is their use of the term “far-right”, which really means “someone that shows dissent to the socialist propagandised narrative”. Can we get a definition of “far-right”? I’d love to see it. Like ‘anti-vaxxer’ I suspect it’ll end up meaning ‘everyone’.

144
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FerdIII
FerdIII
1 year ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

And the UK? How is it any better here?
You might remember the Rona fascism and the total destruction of any who opposed it.
GBNews is lukewarm at best and many of its presenters have been attacked and excommunicated.

125
-1
JohnK
JohnK
1 year ago
Reply to  FerdIII

Or lured out by money, in one or two cases.

18
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  JohnK

I was just thinking today that I’ve not seen Dominique Samuels on any TV channel lately. She was on the Mark Steyn Show when he was still doing video interviews.

4
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  FerdIII

Totally agree. The UK didn’t do much better than most of Europe – some bits were better, some were worse. And I’m talking about not just the state but the people too.

25
0
JeremyP99
JeremyP99
1 year ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

“its policies were also very socialist”

add to that – a super-sized Welfare state.



16
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Even under Hitler it’s said that the unions still held sway in their biggest companies like IG Farben.

2
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RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

Germany is reverting to type.

This ‘type’ is still thoroughly American, just with this pesky constitution out of the way. We’d mostly love to be rid of your antifiscast lickspittles. Telling them that all their bending-over doesn’t help them in the slightest as our anglo-saxon ‘friends and allies’ (that’s sarcasm at its highest) aren’t willing to let go of all their beloved anti-German stereotypes they invented for the first world war might convince some of the not hopefully lost ones that this appeasment effort is to be abandoned.

For contrast:

German left-wing politician: We must urgently have much more immigration and should consider establishing English as official language of all German authorities!

Anglo-Saxon …: This proves once more that you’re all forever herediary Nazi criminals!

That’s real. No one would consider it plausible if it was called comedy.

4
-1
Paramaniac
Paramaniac
1 year ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

We all know why they are acting this way though.
It’s the excess deaths.
Although they are mute on the subject it’s clear that they’re petrified.
They understand that Covid was a hysterical reaction to, at worst, an illness that is cured by Lemsip and that in their irrational panic they were complicit in killing hundreds of thousands of their own citizens. To add salt to the wound, they cheered on the forced injection of the 21st century Thalidomide into the citizens that were left.
They therefore have ONLY one option, try desperately to control dissent,the internet, social media and the MSM in a futile attempt to save their sorry a***s.
Today Vaccine uptake has plummeted and they’re petrified that very soon the excess death graph will have a distinct start (jan 2021) and distinct end (about now) and the conclusion that it was down to Thalidomide 2.0, will be unarguable.
The banning of AUF1 should actually be seen as good news, cornered rats on a sinking ship becoming ever more desperate to hide the truth and, in the process, showing clearly that the end is getting ever closer.

17
0
wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago

GB news has been shut down here. Mark S etc have gone for mildly questioning the vaxx, the Nazis at ofcom weren’t having that. Something called GB news is still going but it’s not the same thing.

Last edited 1 year ago by wokeman
134
-2
FerdIII
FerdIII
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

i record Oliver and his ‘contra guests’ to keep ofcom happy are nauseating in their ignorance and dissimulation.
I used to record Calvin Robinson but can’t have a praying Christian on tv can we.
I tried watching that toff Portillo who can’t say a sentence without adding Lesbian, Gay and Climate Change so gave up. No idea what the point of Portillo is.
Grimes and a few others seem okay. But as with Fox-Faux news it will be consumed by the fake news blob. Tepid at best but even that is too much for the fascists.

72
-1
wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago
Reply to  FerdIII

Portillo always was a total phony. Sadly I was completely taken in. This was before I woke up. Imagine being a Tory seeing socialism repeatedly fail then getting more left wing! I suppose it doesn’t fail Portillo’s bank balance!

Last edited 1 year ago by wokeman
44
-2
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

No, it hasn’t been shut down. But it is being forced to comply with the Establishment’s Overton Window. It is positioning itself carefully on the edge and I have a degree of sympathy with that decision, although I am very sorry that Steyn and Fox were both dumped as soon as it got difficult.

I now only watch Nigel and Neil Oliver … and I have the breakfast show on for about an hour because there’s no alternative, now Julia H-B has been moved to the 10 am slot on TalkTV.

58
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wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago
Reply to  RTSC

Exactly correct.

11
-1
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  RTSC

Julia is still the one that attacks all absurdity the best. I loved her mauling of the GB News climate alarmist in chief —–Jim (I am a meteorologist you know) Dale. ————-She ripped him and his phony climate junk science to shreds. Which isn’t as hard as it seems, because he is full of S..T. ——They all are, and nothing upsets their beautiful hypothesis more than ugly facts.

65
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AEC
AEC
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Afraid I can’t listen to her since she pushed the jabs and condemned anyone who questioned them.

37
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varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  AEC

Well no one gets it right all the time mate

6
-3
10navigator
10navigator
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Thanks for that varmint, I was praying that the ludicrous Dale would get his comeuppance, and who better to deliver it? I end up shouting at the screen when he’s on, because he talks such drivel. An @r$e of the first water.
I’ll take a shufti for it on youtube.

8
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  10navigator

I am amazed that this idiot who is like hammer that sees everything as a nail can say “The hottest ever”. ——–The thermometer was only invented in the 1700’s. Plus we never had thermometers all over the world recording temperatures since then. The coverage was quite sparse with most of them in wealthy countries. The thermometer temperature record of earth is very unreliable and has been fiddled about with so much for political purposes. ———-Julia is one of the very few on TV able to challenge these people because she actually has a bit of a grasp of the issue. Many other TV presenters simply do not, and as I have been looking into the politics of energy and climate since about 2007 I can see immediately who knows their stuff and who does not.

7
0
186NO
186NO
1 year ago
Reply to  RTSC

Agree with your comments in the main, NO is a dose of weekly informed common sense. Farage not so certain; recently there have been several occasions with some interviewees discussing , preaching issues when he has not ( ? for editorially OFCOM compliant reasons..? ) gone for the jugular. One such is Dame Alison Rose; he should have had an expert in FCA regulated businesses and individual Senior Manager regime compliance to illustrate the very serious breaches she committed to say nothing of the initial ill-advised support of the Board as expressed by Howard Davies ( ex FSA head FFS!!!).

But, inexplicably, he did not – I can only think he was keeping his “powder dry” for the lawsuit he has instigated; otherwise he has let her wriggle of a hook. I wonder if her abbreviated remuneration reflecting she was not “a good leaver” includes contributions to legal expenses for any legal action relating to her employment with NatWest….

7
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  RTSC

She hardly ever questions the jab, called people protecting the Cenotaph ‘Far right’, and interviewed Tobias Ellwood without any mention of the 77 Brigade spying on UK citizens or even problem MPs. She is what they call, controlled opposition or Cos play freedom fighters!

14
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

Regulators, the left wing media (which is about 90% of it all) and all the socialist and eco socialist parasites will never stop till GB news simply turns into SKY NEWS lite. —-GB News needs to box more clever. Still expose the lefts hypocrisy and absurdity but be more clever about it. —–A bit like a football team that can compete better if it doesn’t have players sent off.

33
-1
186NO
186NO
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

100%; less of the feigned ( or real) indignation but “just the facts” – and be a lot cleverer with questions and followups (imho, “NO”).

JRM is not everyone cup of tea, but at least his knowledge often gives him the upper hand and he is unfailingly polite – and very good at being disarmingly barbed without being rude.

9
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  186NO

He mentioned in a conversation yesterday or day before that Natural Law is null & void since an execution in the 1600s. There are Inalienable Rights we are talking about here that is in the Magna Carta. This is where the New Chartists are needed or whatever they changed their name to?

6
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

Patrick Christys will be the next to go, mark my words. His new evening spot is gong to ruffle a lot of feathers.

30
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

GB News will more than likely be infected with the Liberal progressive virus that has spread faster than covid all over the western world. ——-or as Pelosi pointed out “We are all socialists now”. ——–At least I think it was Nancy Pelosi. —–You see I think that being a socialist gives busy bodies much more to do than if you are a free market right wing person that prefers to let people get on with their own lives and be free to spend their own money how they want. Being the socialist busy body lets you rip out everyone’s central heating, and stick useless heat pumps everywhere. It lets you ration everyone’s energy use with smart meters. It lets you tell everyone what words they can and cannot use, and name calls you as a racist, or misogynist if you dare to not comply. (except Muslims ofcourse who are free to treat women however they want). It lets you put men in women’s toilets and changing rooms so you can insist you are champions of equality. It insists we should be back in the centrally planned EU so as the barbarian hordes invade every coastline, the socialists can busy themselves deciding what packaging is allowed on cheese, fruit and biscuits. All vitally important stuff. Much more important than the destruction of European and British culture. ——-Let’s hope then that GB News just does not end up as SKY NEWS LITE.

14
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

And we all know where collectivism leads throughout history. Still it’s surprising how so many in the US drank the collectivist Kool Aid in 2020. Remember one of the campaigning warnings against Obama was his Medicare sounds like socialism.

Last edited 1 year ago by Ron Smith
5
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

The left cannot stand you having choice. ——-Because they have this big fear that you might not choose them. So right of centre world views must be silenced, name called and even criminalised.

72
0
CircusSpot
CircusSpot
1 year ago

Then the minorities start clashing with each other like the ‘women with penises’ insisting they join an Internet lesbian dating site, which then had to close.

29
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago

I remember when radio 1 banned Frankie goes to Hollywood’s song ‘Relax’

It went straight to number 1!

The people aren’t thick, they know what’s going on and this will propel AUF’s and AFD,s popularity !

49
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Dinger64

Or Es are good!

4
0
ekathulium
ekathulium
1 year ago

So the STASI rule.
This tyrannical destruction of a prosperous, happy country is aggravated by the unbelievable wokery of a pregnant woman identifying as a man and, when the baby is born, the midwife being fined €10,000 for “misgendering” if she says “Congratulations, Frau Schmidt!”
Not surprisingly, Germany has a new nickname: Absurdistan.

45
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  ekathulium

It is all things that have gone a bit crazy, like that sheep that was stuck in a valley so they had to ‘rescue’ it…..Headlines like ‘I’m lonely etc, Really FFS! I got a mate who has sheep and this animal’s health index was 4.5 — 5.00 is considered obese! Now it’s a celebrity animal and the farm gets all sorts of threats. This crazy stuff didn’t happen 20 years ago, must be something in the water!

4
0
Sforzesca
Sforzesca
1 year ago

On any level this censorship is wrong but God help us when bad medicine meets bad politics meets bigpharma.
Imagine if the RPTB throughout medical history had had the capability of total censorship against “the narrative” –
No challenges or theories allowed against bad things happening because bad behaviour upsets the gods.
No challenges or theories allowed against bloodletting.
No challenges or theories allowed against the concept of miasma.

Thankfully Medical Science is now Settled and Complete:-

We know virus and bacteria cause all known disease.
We know that said diseases are always spread by contaminated individuals.
We know now that said diseases will be cured only by universal vaccination – especially those of an mRNA typewhich will keep us all safe.
We know now that in order to keep us all safe it will be necessary to have a universal and compulsory form of digital ID in order to ensure compliance. This of course has the added benefits of enabling terrorists to be tracked and eliminated, oh and also to ensure you don’t exceed your carbon credit quota less your digital currency card be disabled.

32
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 year ago
Reply to  Sforzesca

If big pharma and DoH had been able to suppress the prompt, widespread and obvious physical evidence of Thalidomide we would still be using that German developed drug.

27
0
Sforzesca
Sforzesca
1 year ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Quite and the sad thing is that they succeeded in keeping it quiet for a good few years.
They’ve got form ever since the term snake oil salesman was coined.
Just take a look at the criminal fines dished out to all bigpharma over the decades – and they’re just the ones that have come to light.
All being well statins will be in the frame next –

https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/what-can-statins-teach-us-about-the?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

18
0
186NO
186NO
1 year ago
Reply to  Sforzesca

There is, if I remember correctly, a post which details the horror story of Pfizer corporate fines to date; I hope you can find it with a bit of patience, its a long post…

7
0
186NO
186NO
1 year ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

“We” still are I thought.

4
0
JeremyP99
JeremyP99
1 year ago

Germany is clearly completely unable to learn from its past.

24
0
Monro
Monro
1 year ago

Socialist fascism…..how very German…….

‘It is symptomatic that throughout the 19th century the religion of liberalism was completely unknown to so highly civilized a people as the Germans but for one parenthesis which has been described as the “ridiculous parliament of Frankfort “ which lasted just one season. Germany attained her national unity outside liberalism and in opposition to liberalism, a doctrine which seems foreign to the German temperament, essentially monarchical, whereas liberalism is the historic and logical anteroom to anarchy. The three stages in the making of German unity were the three wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870, led by such ”liberals” as Moltke and Bismarck.’

‘The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporative, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organized in their respective associations, circulate within the State.’

‘Never before have the peoples thirsted for authority, direction, order, as they do now. If each age has its doctrine, then innumerable symptoms indicate that the doctrine of our age is the Fascist.’

“The Doctrine of Fascism” (1932) by Benito Mussolini

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
8
0
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
1 year ago

They’ve done Goebels Proud ! Chunts !!..

7
0

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