German journalists' union condemns attack on reporters in village

The German Journalists' Association (DJV) on Thursday condemned an attack on reporters in a village in central Germany that was the site of a previous incident.

Police said two men attacked three journalists in the small municipality of Fretterode on Wednesday, using physical violence and a suspected irritant substance.

The suspects are believed to be from the far-right scene. A police spokeswoman told dpa that the pair, a 56-year-old and a 22-year-old, were detained but subsequently released due to a lack of grounds for arrest.

The victims were treated in hospital for minor injuries before being discharged.

The reporters involved were from Spiegel TV, a production company ran by well-known news magazine Der Spiegel, according to a dpa reporter in Fretterode.

A journalist involved confirmed the altercation, but Der Spiegel magazine has not yet commented on the case.

DJV official Mariana Friedrich said attacks on media representatives are apparently seen as normal.

"Absurdly, perpetrators can often feel safe precisely within the very rule of law that they seek to delegitimize and combat," Friedrich said.

She pointed to a lenient sentence handed down by the Mühlhausen Regional Court following a brutal attack in the same small village in April 2018, in which two journalists were seriously injured by alleged far-right extremists.

A new trial is under way at the court after the Federal Court of Justice overturned the initial ruling.

"This crime proves that the initial judgement was not fit to defend press freedom and, by extension, our democracy," said Friedrich.