From now on, all media outlets in Germany can report suspected cases of criminally relevant hate speech to the ZMI BKA. In this way, the media authorities work together with police/judicial state and federal authorities to create a more democratic network.
The North Rhine-Westphalia State Media Authority has been working closely with the Federal Criminal Police Office since May 2022 and has since been transmitting content that incites hatred or, for example, denies the Holocaust to the ZMI BKA. To date, the NRW media authority has delivered almost 700 reports. This cooperation is now being expanded and the reporting option is available to media outlets nationwide.
Ensuring effective criminal prosecution by ZMI BKA and state police forces - enforcement of media law at media institutions
As part of this cooperation, the ZMI BKA examines the reports submitted by its partners with regard to criminal relevance and possible aspects of danger, identifies the alleged author if possible and, if successful, transmits the facts to the locally responsible law enforcement authorities in the federal states, which subsequently inform the others Conduct investigations. The media authorities, for their part, are responsible for enforcing the ban on the distribution of criminally relevant and youth-endangering content in social networks or telemedia offerings.
Federal and state authorities, law enforcement and media supervision work together - a successful model that is now being expanded.
“Together with our cooperation partners, we can effectively counteract the increasing brutalization of communication on the Internet and ensure consistent prosecution of hate speech committed there. To date, they have submitted more than 8,000 reports, which have been examined by the BKA in order to enable criminal prosecution in the federal states. This makes it clear that the cooperation between the media authorities and the BKA represents a promising model for combating hatred and agitation on the Internet. By expanding the ZMI, we are also implementing a central requirement of the Federal Ministry of the Interior's action plan against right-wing extremism to holistically combat hate speech on the Internet," said BKA President Holger Münch about the ZMI BKA's cooperation with media outlets.
“Law enforcement on the Internet is a constant balancing act between the basic idea of free media use on the one hand and effective protection against sometimes drastic legal violations on the other. It is certainly a long road on which the close, trusting and, above all, efficient cooperation between the BKA, the state authorities and the state media authorities is an important step. Our cooperation also proves that what many people don't think is possible works: effective online legal enforcement in a decentralized, federal system. If this isn’t a good example for other work processes in Europe, then I don’t know what is,” comments Dr. Tobias Schmid , Director of the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia , expanded the cooperation between the BKA and the media authorities.
If you also see a legal violation on the Internet, please report it to us. You can reach our supervisory team directly using our complaint form Our press office is available to answer your questions at any time.
Source:
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