Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities.
Berlin, Germany – Senior newsroom figures at Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle are cultivating a culture of fear among journalists who are tasked with reporting on Israel’s war on Gaza, 13 staff members and freelancers currently working for the network – plus a former long-term correspondent – have told Al Jazeera.
They accuse Deutsche Welle of pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias, allege that they have heard colleagues make Islamophobic and dehumanising remarks about Palestinians and protesters in the Berlin office with impunity, and have shared with Al Jazeera several internal documents – one of which lists “possible comebacks” for anchors to use during live interviews with “pro-Palestinian voices” who make “controversial statements” – such as accusing Israel of war crimes.
Other documents include a separate style guide specifically for covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, which informs staff that the word “Palestine” cannot be used in coverage “as it has not yet gained the status of a state”.
“For territory, we refer specifically to the West Bank or Gaza, or the Palestinian territories,” the guide states.
A handout from an anti-Semitism awareness training event suggests that “hatred of Jews is expressed using codes such as the ‘Zionists’ or the ‘Israelis’ … Therefore, criticism of Israel can also be a form of Israel-related anti-Semitism.”
A planning document for the war’s anniversary, at a time when at least 42,000 Palestinians, including 17,000 children, had been killed under Israeli bombardment in Gaza, appeared to suggest that Israeli suffering should be prioritised.
“The focus should be on the terrorist attack on Israel, but stories dealing with the war in Gaza can also be published on this day,” it says.
‘Constant sense of fear’
“The sense of pressure was constant,” Martin Gak, who has since left the network, told Al Jazeera.
“There is a constant sense of fear with (senior staff) looking at the things you were writing with enormous care, almost paranoia.”
Gak worked for 10 years at Deutsche Welle as a religious affairs correspondent and senior producer for the political interview show Conflict Zone, which often covers Israel-Palestine.
“From a journalistic point of view, Deutsche Welle fills its mouth with grand concepts like freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience. And it’s clear that this is just being used as mouthwash,” said Gak, who is Argentinean and Jewish.
All interviewees except Gak requested anonymity, fearing reprisals.
While the style guide states that “we do not tolerate the use of racist language towards Palestinians which aim to disparage the Palestinian people”, several sources said staff openly used Islamophobic and anti-Arab slurs in the newsroom.
In one instance, a manager referred to pro-Palestine protesters as “looking Allahu Akbar” – a derogatory use of the Arabic phrase meaning “God is great”, alleged Kate*, a current freelancer with the network.
In another example, an executive producer questioned whether a Palestinian child could have been faking his suffering for the cameras, Andrew* claimed.
“I was doing a report and there’d been a strike,” said Andrew, who is also currently working for Deutsche Welle. A 10-year-old was seen in video footage “crying and saying, ‘The bombs fell and my father and I had to carry my uncle’s body, and half his head was exploded’.”
Andrew wanted to have a conversation about the ethics of using traumatic clips of children.
“It did create debate in the newsroom that we had in the end. I kept it in, but this particular [executive] produced his argument: ‘How do we know if this kid is acting?’”
To most people in the Berlin newsroom, it was clear the child was not acting, Andrew said.
“The real question was whether or not we include the suffering of a child.”
When asked about these allegations, a Deutsche Welle spokesperson told Al Jazeera via email that the network does not accept “Islamophobic, racist, dehumanising or discriminatory remarks”, adding that it employs an “anti-discrimination officer who is available for everyone”.
They did not directly answer Al Jazeera’s question on the alleged comment about child crisis actors, but pointed to a previous example of a fact-checking article.
“The team has proven that claims that Palestinian children in Gaza are ‘acting’ are false,” they said.
Since October 7, when Hamas launched an incursion into southern Israel during which 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 were taken captive, Israel’s war on Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, the majority of them children and women.
“From the senior management I have heard a lot of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment and a strong bias towards Israel,” said Karen*, who works in the Berlin office.
“From a journalistic perspective, it’s ridiculous. I’ve heard someone saying, ‘We always hear that there is no safe place to go in Gaza, but why don’t they [Palestinian civilians] go in the tunnels of Hamas? This shows the dehumanisation of Palestinian lives in the eyes of leading figures at Deutsche Welle.”
‘A nervousness from the top down’
German support for Israel is seen as a historic duty and part of its raison d’etre to atone for the Holocaust.
A few days after the Hamas attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare that Germany had “only one place – and it is alongside Israel”. Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States.
Scholz’s government has been accused by lawyers at the International Court of Justice of aiding genocide and, in a separate case, of complicity, claims it denies. It is also regularly accused by activists of cracking down on pro-Palestinian voices.
Deutsche Welle, which receives state funds, was founded by the German federal government in 1953.
The outlet’s style guide states that Germany’s special responsibility towards Israel “does not mean there cannot be criticism of Israeli policy” and “in all cases, we continue to follow our obligations to report stories impartially”. One email from a manager says, “We want to show the full extent of this war, the human cost on all sides.” Another email says, “Critical coverage of Israeli policy is part of our job as journalists.”
But several workers Al Jazeera interviewed fear the channel’s funding model imperils journalistic credibility.
“Most of us on the actual newsroom floor see what’s happening and want to do our piece to reveal the realities of what’s happening on the ground [in Gaza],” said Andrew. “There’s a nervousness from the top down which does permeate across the floor and I would say that has guided editorial policy.”
Andrew also accused the network of double standards.
Regarding the ban on using the word Palestine, he said: “I find that inconsistent because we can say Taiwan, we can say Kosovo and the Western Sahara, there’s a list of other things we can say that also fall into that category. There does seem to be some Palestine exceptionalism on that front.”
The Deutsche Welle spokesperson said, regarding allegations of pro-Israel bias and newsroom tensions, that the network promotes “constructive exchange” and repeatedly holds “feedback conferences about our coverage – also about the coverage of the war in Gaza”.
“At DW we are committed to impartiality in all of our journalistic work.”
‘We rather pre-record interviews with Palestinian voices’
Live interviews appear to be a particular concern for management.
On October 16 last year, a senior newsroom leader sent an email to guest bookers explaining that because the network does not want “unchallenged” anti-Semitic remarks on air, “we rather pre-record interviews with Palestinian voices right now”.
The email read: “If we don’t know a guest’s position and/or fear the voice could be extreme (pro-Hamas, antisemitic, anti-zionist…), we should stick to pre-recordings to check before broadcasting.”
If a voice was considered “rather moderate”, as in a guest who “condemns terror” attacks, and an executive producer or anchor believes they can “handle it and challenge problematic remarks, we can go live”, the email concluded.
In the document touted as a “quick guide for people preparing for potentially challenging live situations”, Deutche Welle recommends anchors to respond to guests who accuse Israel of war crimes with something along the lines of, “You are not the only (person) to allege this – but Israel says it’s acting in accordance with international humanitarian law. ‘War crime’ is a legal term – a conclusive answer to this can only be given by the International Court of Justice.”
If a guest compares Gaza with a concentration camp or says Israel’s war is akin to a second Holocaust, the document says a presenter could reply: “These terms are incredibly sensitive, especially here in Germany, where they’re seen as trivialising the Holocaust. There are other assessments, too – can you please be more specific in what you are criticising?”
On May 22, as more Western countries backed Palestinian statehood, Deutsche Welle cut Palestinian-American legal scholar Noura Erakat short after she referred to the “apartheid” and “genocide” being committed by Israel.
The presenter interrupted Erakat once to say that those terms are “highly disputed and of course, rejected by Israel”. The presenter then ultimately ended the exchange abruptly when Erakat called for a boycott against Israel in order to end the “livestreamed genocide”.
“We’re just going to have to leave it there,” the presenter said, as Erakat continued speaking, her words inaudible to the audience.
Deutsche Welle denied cutting Erekat off.
“The presenter added some context to the terms” such as genocide, the spokesperson said. “The interview was terminated when … the time for the interview in a news programme was up.”
The newsroom clashes have led to multiple processes, such as compulsory anti-Semitism workshops led by the network’s anti-Semitism expertise team.
Amid the trove of internal documents, Deutsche Welle states that there is a distinction between criticism of the Israeli state’s actions and “Israel-related anti-Semitism” and underscores its commitment to impartiality.
But Gak, who participated in a workshop, said advice can often seem confusing.
He said an instructor of Jewish background spoke for an “entire 15 minutes concerning Jewish noses in the context of Jewish stereotypes that were described and debated”.
At one point, the instructor referred to her own nose and asked attendees whether it could be identified as a Jewish nose.
Gak said it was the “most incredible moment in 30 years of devoting myself to religion and 45 years of Jewish education and engagement with questions of Judaism”.
He added that while he was working on footage of an interview with Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam S Zomlot, a member of the anti-Semitism team entered the editing suite to oversee the process.
“It was extremely unusual to have someone standing over my shoulder, directly behind us basically saying what was to be cut out,” he said.
Zomlot had referred to Palestinians being under oppression for 110 years. The external observer claimed the comment could be construed as anti-Semitic, Gak said.
The German broadcaster is the latest major Western media outlet to be accused of pro-Israel bias as tensions flare across newsrooms. Similar concerns have been raised at The New York Times, BBC and CNN.
“Reporters who seek to show the suffering of Palestinians or shed light on Israeli warfare, as well as journalists who cover topics about Jewish communities in Germany currently experience a very tense and hostile working climate,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera.
“They experience hate and incitement online and feel the effects of increasingly narrow corridors of opinion. In recent months, many media professionals, especially with a migrant background, have also contacted the organisation with serious accusations that a climate of fear and self-censorship prevails in German media outlets.”
It said it was investigating these allegations.
According to German journalist and media critic Fabian Goldmann, free expression in Germany is marred by “effective smear campaigns” against those who condemn Israel.
“If you work for public broadcasters, you are attacked frequently,” he said.
Publications like Bild, the right-wing German tabloid, “put you on their cover … there are many instances of German media personnel who have lost their job, following those smear campaigns”, Goldmann said.
Kai Hafez, a professor in comparative international media and communication research at the University of Erfurt, said the decontextualisation of the Israel-Palestine conflict is commonplace in the Western media but especially stark in Germany.
“We have a tendency to view Israelis as victims only, rather than, you know, clarifying that they are also an occupying territory. That they are exerting what I would call state terrorism in a lot of respects,” he told Al Jazeera.
Islamophobia and “Arabphobia” in Western media “all blends to some type of dehumanisation,” he said. “Obviously, Arab victims are not as important as other types of victims here.”
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