Huberta von Voss and Julia Ebner discuss freedom of the press, the far right and conspiracy theories

ISD Germany’s Executive Director, Huberta von Voss, and extremism expert Julia Ebner feature in a special broadcast for German Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), discussing freedom of the press, the far right and conspiracy theories.

In a discussion with high-ranking, exiled journalists from Turkey and Russia such as Can Dündar or Anton Troianovski over freedom of the press, Huberta said: “Freedom of the press is something tremendously valuable, but it also demands something of us.” Adding that there needs to be “due diligence and a willingness to pay attention to sources and ask ourselves who is talking to you for what purpose. And we all need to collectively hold platforms accountable to society for protecting democracy with us.”

During the segment, in controversation with investigative journalist Svea Echert, Julia gave insights into the far-right and spoke about the conspiracy theory element to extremism. “It’s often the case that people get into this conspiracy myth world very gradually.”

On if violence and hate is becoming a new normality on the Net, Julia said: “That’s a paradox, because many of these actors in the online sphere are, after all, using the very pretext of freedom of speech and freedom of the press to carry out these campaigns.”

As a partner of the “1st Hamburg Press Freedom Week,” NDR Info also invited guests to the kick-off event at the NDR premises in Hamburg-Lokstedt on behalf of the initiators – the Körber Foundation and the ZEIT Foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius.

You can find the entire segment in the ARD media library.