Freedom of the press
Dealers throw right-wing magazine “Compact” off their shelves. Are they allowed to do that?
The magazine “Compact” was taken off the shelves of station bookshop operators
© Andre Lenthe / Imago Images
The “Compact” magazine, known primarily for its right-wing authors, was discontinued by two large station bookstore operators. But the operators are by no means free to choose which magazines they want to offer and which they don’t.
Initially, Valora, the operator of 192 sales outlets for books and magazines, decided to sell the magazine, which is known for its numerous right-wing authors and has been classified as “certain extremist” by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.“Compact” from its shelves. Then both the Dr. Eckert group and Lagardère Travel Retail followed suit and also removed “Compact” from their offerings. What sounds like a free business decision can, however, lead to problems. Press law places very high demands on permanently banning a magazine from the shelf.
“Compact” is classified as “certainly right-wing extremist”.
Organized press distribution in Germany is almost a monopoly. Individual publishers either conclude contracts with wholesalers who are then entrusted with distributing the media or, as in the case of Valora and Co., they supply them directly to the station bookstores. All those involved are subject to press law. Derived from the freedom of the press enshrined in the Basic Law, according to which everyone has the right to “freely express and disseminate their opinion in word, writing and images and to obtain unhindered information from generally accessible sources,” this becomes the so-called obligation of neutrality and distribution.
The obligation of neutrality and distribution means that all publishers and all retailers must in principle be treated equally, as press lawyer Andreas Thiel explains. It ensures free market access for all providers and ensures that press products are available everywhere. There is therefore an obligation to include every item in the range, regardless of its contents.
This means that retailers themselves are fundamentally not entitled to select their product range based on their own political, ethical, moral or social or religious reasons, summarizes Thiel. “The representation of extreme positions in itself does not constitute a sufficient reason, in terms of freedom of the press and freedom of expression, to take a publication off the market.”
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Up to this point there is no possibility, for example for station bookstores or other retail establishments, to remove a specific magazine from their range. In the case of “Compact”, however, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s assessment is still available. Editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer’s magazine classified this as “certainly right-wing extremist” in 2021. This is exactly what Valora and Co. are now relying on to justify their move. Valora explains the decision in a statement to the “Tagesspiegel” in a statement saying that they “do not want to offer a platform to those who despise Germany’s free-democratic basic order – and thus also freedom of the press and freedom of expression – and aim to overcome it.” It is still unclear whether or to what extent this legal assessment will hold.
The reason for the current banning of “Compact” from the shelves is, among other things, the research by “Correctiv”, which became public a few weeks ago, about a secret meeting near Potsdam in November 2023. The so-called “remigration” was also discussed.
Sources: “Tagesspiegel”, Report from Attorney Thiel, “corrective”