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Hans-Georg Maaßen (CDU) calls for opinion tests for journalists of the »Tagesschau«
Photo: Michael Reichel / dpa
In an interview, the former President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and CDU candidate for the Bundestag, Hans-Georg Maaßen, called for the staff of the "Tagesschau" to be subjected to an attitude test.
In an interview with TV Berlin, Maaßen also stated that there were connections between employees of the Tagesschau and the left-wing and left-wing extremist scene.
"Then it would also be worth investigating, so that the biography of some editors is also being put to the test," said Maaßen, who runs for the CDU in the 1966 Bundestag constituency in southern Thuringia.
It is about "whether these people also have the character trait to accompany the Tagesschau through the editorial team," says Maaßen.
However, Maaßen did not have any concrete evidence for his claim.
Recently increased trust in the media
Maaßen also accused the public service broadcaster of a “clear left-wing spin” and spoke of “manipulation of published opinion”, because he did not see balanced reporting there. The broadcaster TV Berlin, to which Maaßen gave the interview, had to face this accusation repeatedly. "Vice" and the media journalist Stefan Niggemeier criticized the station's uncritical relationship with the Azerbaijan government.
Contrary to the allegations of the CDU politician, however, the trust of the citizens in the media has recently increased according to the long-term study "Media Trust" by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Accordingly, at the end of 2020, 56 percent of those surveyed said that the media could be trusted when it came to important issues such as environmental problems, health hazards, political scandals and crises.
In 2015 this value was still 28 percent.
Trust in public service broadcasting was the highest at 70 percent, followed by regional newspapers, which around two thirds of Germans trust.
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