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Richard Gutjahr's open letter to the BR: Left alone with hate

2020-01-01T13:29:14.621Z


Journalist Richard Gutjahr has been defamed and threatened online for three years. In his farewell letter to the BR he now denounces the inactivity of the broadcaster - he rejects the allegations.



Richard Gutjahr's farewell letter is a settlement. After 22 years as a freelancer for Bayerischer Rundfunk, the journalist leaves the institution - and makes serious accusations to his employer in an open letter. The BR had left his family and him "alone with the hatred and agitation as a result of my coverage for the ARD", Gutjahr wrote on his blog on Tuesday. Above all, however, BR Director Ulrich Wilhelm and his closest employees tried to "deceive the Bayerischer Rundfunk control committee and keep beating the truth behind closed doors".

In his letter, Gutjahr denounces that free journalists in particular are vulnerable to attacks from the Internet. " If we don't finally learn to find a common voice in hatred and agitation against journalists and politicians and continue to try to sweep up our own omissions, we shouldn't be surprised that our opponents are always two steps ahead of us" criticizes the journalist. "This is no longer a game. What we are dealing with here is dead serious."

For him, the "constant fire from hatred and agitation, the slander, the death threats" had abated but did not stop - he had only recently needed personal protection after Facebook calls to "watch" him at a journalists' congress.

How Gutjahr became a figure of hate

Richard Gutjahr is both one of the best-known German online journalists and one of the most hated German online journalists. The blogger, reporter and moderator dealt with digital issues early on, experimenting time and again with new formats such as live streaming. In 2016, he became the target of hatred and agitation because he was on site two times in quick succession - conspiracy theorists construct a connection.

"After reporting on the truck terrorist attack in Nice and the killing spree in Munich, my family and I were targeted by conspiracy theorists, Imperial citizens and neo-Nazis," Gutjahr describes the course of the shitstorm in a republica lecture. This summer changed his life - and his view of the internet.

From the balcony of his hotel room in Nice, Gutjahr happened to be watching and filming the beginning of the Nice attack on July 14, 2016, in which the assassin drove a truck through the crowd and murdered 86 people. "Suddenly a white truck rolled past. That didn't fit into the picture because the streets were closed to all vehicles," he recalls in the SPIEGEL interview. "The truck drove very slowly, some people roared. It looked strange, so I started filming with my cell phone." He sends his scenes filmed from the balcony and later from the street to the BR instead of publishing them online himself. "There, professionals decide what should be published and how," says Gutjahr.

However, the BR distributes the original material, in which his wife's panic calls and his child's crying can be heard, on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The video circulates online for several hours, the BR does not comply with the request to delete it immediately - and thus "only got the worldwide shitstorm rolling", as Gutjahr now criticizes.

After the Nice attack, he watched how people around the world started analyzing his video and researching him and his family. When he was one of the first reporters to come to the Munich Olympia shopping mall just eight days after the Nice attack, it was like oil in the fire.

Conspiracy theorists research that his wife is Jewish, share pictures and details about his wife and daughter online, and insult the family as criminal. They compete in more than a thousand videos on YouTube for the wildest theory - he rose from the "know-it-all, to the mastermind to the mastermind behind these two bloody deeds," says Gutjahr. Alternatively: The terrorist attacks are "fake", staged - and Gutjahr a traitor. His home address and telephone number are also shared on the Internet.

Fight in court

Already at that time, Gutjahr said that he was writing a personal letter to the director-general Ulrich Wilhelm asking for help. "You could have helped us, could have actively and visibly stood in front of your employees for all the world," he accuses the director. "Instead, you looked away - even though you were one of the few who were well informed about all the details, especially about the anti-Semitic motives of our attackers."

Gutjahr fights with his lawyer against the conspiracy theorists, financed by his private legal expenses insurance. When the insurance company gives notice, he contacts the BR. It is only after he contacts the ombudsman that he finally receives "a one-off payment, less than a monthly salary". The BR referred him to the German Association of Journalists. "I will never forget the accompanying words from your legal director: You can't hire a lawyer for every freelance employee just because you are being" bullyed "online," Gutjahr said.

Gutjahr accuses his previous boss, the director-general of the BR Ulrich Wilhelm, not only of inactivity - but also of having "told the truth or misled" the case at non-public meetings of the BR-control committee. Among other things, he is said to have claimed that the BR "settled Gutjahr's litigation costs".

BR rejects allegations

"The hatred that Richard Gutjahr has had on the Internet for three years is shameful," says a statement by the BR. "The conspiracy theories are absurd, the threats to Mr. Gutjahr are shocking." However, the open letter "contains no new aspects and is essentially not applicable," as the broadcaster told SPIEGEL on Wednesday. "The BR strictly rejects the director's accusation of lying and deception."

The management and the chairman of the broadcasting council of the BR had therefore dealt intensively with all facets of the case several times in the past three years - "The broadcasting council gave detailed advice on the case. " A cancellation agreement with Richard Gutjahr had already been reached by mutual agreement in March 2019; since then he has not worked for the BR.

Lack of backing

Gutjahr's experiences are an extreme case, but not an isolated case - time and again, especially freelance journalists are left alone with legal trouble, shitstorms and even threats. "If the decision-makers of public service broadcasting do not immediately understand the dynamics in digital space and the impact of digital change, we will face more than serious problems," criticizes ARD digital expert Dennis Horn on Twitter. "The past few days have shown that there is still a long way to go." Cases like Gutjahr, but also the events surrounding the "environmental granny scandal" would show "why freelance public service broadcasters are justifiably sensitive if their free status is emphasized again, for whatever reason."

At WDR, a freelance member of the WDR social media team commented on the excitement about the "environmental pig" song in a sarcastic tweet and then received death threats. Instead of standing behind the employees, the WDR initially distanced itself from their statements and clarified that they were a freelance, not a permanent employee. The federal chairman of the DJV, Frank Überall, criticized this - it is not about questions of taste of satire, but about the protection of satire and freedom of expression. He also describes the editorial distancing of WDR director Tom Buhrow as "unhelpful" to the "environmental sow" children's song.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2020-01-01

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