A young man repeatedly violently attacked a reporter from Bayerischer Rundfunk. This happened on Tuesday afternoon in Munich after a press conference by Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek about the Corona communication campaign on booster vaccines. The 38-year-old reporter was interviewing listeners when the man attacked him from the side with several punches to the head.
Police arrest attackers
Security managed to push the man back. But he kept trying to get closer to the reporter. He finally ambushed him on the way to the car and attacked him again at Marienplatz with punches. The police managed to arrest the man. The 23-year-old was taken into security custody, from where he was released in the evening. The attacker had previously insulted the reporter and said, “I will destroy you all.”
BR Wildermuth Director: “Attack on Freedom of the Press”
The reporter filed a complaint for assault. The criminal police are investigating. According to BR research, the author of the crime can be framed in the spectrum of the extreme right and has also expressed a willingness to use violence on the internet, as he is already known to the police because of previous incidents. As the Bureau reported Wednesday afternoon, he had already become known for offenses against state security and an attack on law enforcement officials. Police have not confirmed another attack on a photographer, as described on Twitter, but are looking into relevant information.
Director BR Dr. Katja Wildermuth. “I condemn this terrible attack on our reporter in the strongest possible terms. Press freedom is a valuable asset that must be protected. Any attack on journalists is also an attack on press freedom.”
Editor-in-Chief Nitsche “Shocked”
BR Editor-in-Chief Christian Nitsche: “I am shocked by this level of disinhibition and brutalization. During the corona pandemic, there were repeated attacks on BR reporters on the sidelines of the demonstrations. These were mostly verbal in nature. The current onslaught goes beyond that dimension and is the most serious attack on a colleague of the BR to date. The fact that someone attacks a reporter in the back and expresses fantasies of annihilation crosses all borders.”
Holetschek: The media must be able to report without fear of intimidation
Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) also strongly condemned the attack. Holetschek said the exact context should now be clarified quickly. Of course, every violent attack on journalists is also an attack on press freedom and democracy. The media must be able to report freely without fear of intimidation.