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Scientific laboratory employees analyze corona tests (archive image)
Photo: Daniel Karmann / dpa
"One-sided" and "defamatory": The Alliance of Science Organizations defends itself with harsh formulations against the reports in the "Bild" newspaper about the work of scientists in the corona pandemic. In a statement by the Alliance of Science Organizations, to which Germany's most important science and research organizations belong, it is said that the newspaper is continuing its "one-sided reporting against scientists that began last year."
The reason for the criticism is the "Bild" issue last Saturday.
Under the title "The Lockdown Makers", the newspaper had accused three scientists of being responsible for the 2G requirements and the associated exclusion of unvaccinated people from dining, retail and other offers in many federal states.
Subtitle: »Trio of experts give us frustration for the festival«.
"The fact that and in what way individual researchers are exhibited here and made personally responsible for urgently required but unpopular measures to combat pandemics is defamatory," writes the alliance in its statement.
She called for more objectivity in discussions and reporting.
"Anyone who is depicted in this way has to expect threats and worse."
The report of the tabloid is a violation of the press code, various media had previously commented. "The headline was factually untrue: the three corona researchers had neither called for a general lockdown, nor do they have the power to implement a lockdown," said SPIEGEL colleague Mathieu von Rohr on Monday morning in the "Situation in the Morning" and warned : "Anyone who is depicted in this way must expect threats and worse."
The "RiffReporter" commented on Sunday: "What 'Bild' does becomes a danger to science in Germany against the background of the radicalization of the corona deniers scene." the scientist would be exposed to or threatened with physical or psychological violence.
"If we advocate academic freedom around the world, it must also be guaranteed without restriction for scientists in Germany," DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee told SPIEGEL.
»The coverage of the› Bild ‹newspaper has meanwhile reached an unbearable and anti-science level."