A German federal court has temporarily lifted the government's recent ban on the far-right publication Compact on Wednesday, allowing it to continue operations as its appeal moves forward.
Last month, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned Compact and the company that publishes it, Compact-Magazin GmbH, while condemning the magazine and accusing it of being a "mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene."
According to Reuters, media bans in Germany are relatively rare as it places a high value on press freedom, and the country ranks 10th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders' world press freedom index.
"This magazine incites hatred against Jews, people with a history of migration and our parliamentary democracy in an unspeakable manner," Faeser said when announcing the ban.
According to the Associated Press, Compact quickly appealed to the Federal Administrative Court to have the ban lifted.
On Wednesday, the court, after a preliminary review, concluded that Compact's appeal had an "open" chance of success, warranting the suspension of the ban during the ongoing legal process, the AP reported.
In a statement, the court acknowledged that evidence points to "a militant and aggressive position toward elementary constitutional principles" in many of its articles but expressed uncertainty about whether an outright ban was a proportionate response, the AP reported.
Newsweek reached out to Interior Minister's office via email on Wednesday for comment.
Compact, under the leadership of far-right figure Jürgen Elsässer, has been in publication since 2010 with a monthly circulation of approximately 40,000. The magazine is also accompanied by an online video channel, Compact TV, and an online store offering various merchandise.
According to Reuters, Elsaesser condemned the ban when it was announced, stating that the decision was "dictatorial" and represented an attack on German press freedom.
"You are treating us like a mafia, like a terrorist group. But we are a legal press organ with a clean criminal record," he told Reuters TV. "This makes it clear that the only aim is to destroy the opposition and us as the strongest media."
The recent controversy surrounding Compact comes as a rise in far-right sentiment in Germany has become a growing concern. Amid elections in eastern Germany this year, Faeser warned that extremism is the greatest threat to German democracy as mainstream politicians struggle to respond to a rise in the popularity of the right-wing party Alternative for Germany, Reuters reported.
In 2021, Germany's domestic intelligence agency designated Compact as a proven right-wing extremist publication for disseminating conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination propaganda and antisemitic and Islamophobic narratives.
In addition, in its annual report for 2023, the agency continued to state that Compact "regularly disseminates ... antisemitic, anti-minority, historically revisionist and conspiracy theory content."
At the time the ban was announced, the head of the German Journalists Association (DJV), Mika Beuster, said he expected any court to uphold the ban.
"In my opinion, what Compact is doing has nothing to do with journalism, it is conspiracy-ideological, it is...definitely right-wing extremist," he told the RND media group.
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