[1] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=site%3Asp...
[2] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=site%3Aze...
[3] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=site%3Ata...
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/wochenende/interview-un-sond...
also see this coverage:
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/julian-...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Melzer#Assessment_on_the_...
Interesting that the BZ used to be a little bit more liberal than the mainstream press, even back when it was published in East Germany under Socialism ;-)
Q: Your job was to reveal cases of torture and mistreatment by states. Do governments exert a lot of pressure?
A: I have been always in respect of all of the regulations, and I have to admit that I could always proceed freely with my work. However one is risking his carreer, if one is stepping to much on the feet of the permanent members of the UN security council. I was told informally, that I would have to pay a political price, but I am accepting this (reality).
Original:
Ihre Aufgabe ist das Aufdecken von Folterungen und Misshandlungen durch Staaten. Gibt es da nicht viel Druck von den Regierungen?
Ich habe immer darauf geachtet, dass ich nach den Vorschriften handle. Und ich kann sagen, dass ich meine Arbeit wirklich frei machen konnte. Allerdings riskiert man schon seine Karriere, wenn man den permanenten Mitgliedern des UN-Sicherheitsrats allzu sehr auf die Füße steigt. Man hat mir informell mitgeteilt, dass ich einen politischen Preis zu bezahlen haben werde. Aber das nehme ich in Kauf.
Pretty much all German politicians, and journalists, of "relevance" are members in some pro-US NGO [0] or another, often even several of them.
Der Spiegel used to be one of thew few wider reaching left-leaning exceptions, they even published Snowden's first interview internationally back in 2013.
But over the years they went trough a slow transformation; They've become noticeably less critical of the US, completely ignoring any further developments around Snowden or Assagne, while ramping up on anti-Russian news.
Why is nobody there reaching out to people like Nils Melzer, as Swiss Republik.ch did? [1]
If Der Spiegel would have published something like that, it would have reached a far wider audience, could maybe even made some actual waves.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantik-Br%C3%BCcke
[1] https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikilea...
It’s not pertinent. The journalistic draw of a years-old case and judicial mechanics. Everyone has a pet agenda that seems irresponsibly ignored by the media and the public. Procedural developments are rarely big news.
To me, the coverage he gets in the far-reaching magazines is a little bit underrepresented, to stay polite. This includes U.S. press, UK press and german press.
They'd probably have thought a key witness who turned out to be a liar and a rapist of underage boys who was given immunity was a little bit newsworthy if it happened during the trial to, say, lock Navalny up.
Just not when it's Assange, I suppose.
Sometimes media outlets have an agenda.
No. They always have an agenda. And that agenda, overwhelmingly, is pro status quo. Not left, not right, not up or down. Just "things are basically OK except for a few problems here and there which we'll tell you about, though not in much depth".
This is hugely important and not a pet agenda.
> [...] should provide a forum for German and other perspectives on important topics, predominantly in politics, culture and economy, both in Europe and in other continents, with the aim to foster understanding and exchange between cultures and people. While doing so, it especially supports the German language. (my off-the-cuff translation, but should capture the gist of it I hope)