Germany’s Disinformation War Against red. media
For months, a coordinated campaign has been underway against red.media—launched by an unholy alliance of German media outlets, journalists, union representatives, and NGOs, some of which were even founded or directly financed by the German and Israeli state.
The aim of this campaign is to intimidate, criminalize, and ultimately silence red.media through lawsuits and media repression — with the calculation of forcing a criminal conviction through fabricated allegations and media pressure.
Translation: “Admonition / Written Statement in Criminal Proceedings
Dear Mr. Doğru,
You are accused of having committed the following criminal offense:
Allegation: Defamation pursuant to Section 187 of the German Criminal Code (StGB).
You are accused of having published an online campaign based on defamation and insults to the detriment of the injured party on December 17, 2024, via the social media platforms “X” and “Instagram,” as well as through the online outlet “Red.”“
Over the past months, red.media has been accused of:
- Instigating pro-Palestine protests in Germany
- Instigating the Humboldt University Berlin occupation by pro-Palestinian Activists
- Giving “terrorists” a platform – referring to our interviews with relevant / major political actors in the Middle East
- Being a continuation of redfish
- Starting an alleged campaign against a journalist – by just listing his journalistic background
These accusations are not just fabricated — they are part of a broader strategy: critical, dissident media like red.media are to be defamed, criminalized, and ultimately dismantled. Our journalistic work is systematically distorted, and our positions are deliberately misrepresented. What we are experiencing is orchestrated repression — legitimized by a media-manufactured myth of threat. It is an attack on independent journalism — and on every voice that challenges the official narrative.
The Misery of German Journalism
The very same individuals who are now attacking us have remained silent, have downplayed, or outright justified the killing of over 200 Palestinian journalists by the Israeli state over the past year and a half, yet are now expressing outrage over a factually correct social media post about a “journalist” employed by the German newspaper “taz”—Nicholas Potter. Potter’s reporting aligns politically with the right, yet he presents himself as a leftist and is celebrated by supposedly left-wing newspapers while at the same time writing for conservative ones, including the Jerusalem Post—a newspaper that often reads like a mouthpiece of the Israeli government.
- Our post about Nicholas Potter contained no falsehoods. All of it was based on information that we took either from his own website or from the platforms, newspapers, and institutions he works or has worked for. It was a factual listing of his journalistic background. It is absurd that we are expected to apologize for this, and to further be punished for it.
- Despite accusations of spreading misinformation, no one has presented any evidence to substantiate these claims.
- On March 17, 2025, in taz, Nicholas Potter claimed: “The campaign is coordinated, it was launched by the Russia-affiliated portal Red – the successor to RT’s Redfish project,” without providing a single piece of evidence. These statements are defamatory, false, and criminalizing.
- Through deliberate distortion and a reversal of perpetrator and victim roles, there is an attempt to construct a so-called “Kremlin-radical-left-Palestinian” conspiracy against supposedly professional journalists in Germany.
We explicitly distance ourselves from any threats, insults, or defamation against journalists. As targets of such campaigns—initiated by German media figures, union representatives, and NGOs—we know all too well what this looks like. Articles and posts of this exact nature were published by Nicholas Potter, taz, the German state propaganda newspaper Tagesspiegel, the Axel Springer media group, trade union officials, among others—while all of the above now cry foul over supposed “attacks” and “campaigns” against them.
We have called on all those who spread these false claims as facts to disclose whether they actually checked and verified these allegations before publishing them. We reached out to editorial offices, journalists – even Reporters Without Borders Germany. To this day, no one has responded or provided evidence of their verification practices.
Some exaples:
Furthermore, we stand by the legitimate criticism of Potter’s work and that of other German media professionals, who have abused their duty to report factually and objectively to become shills for Israel’s mass murder in Palestine. This criticism is shared by a growing number of journalists and observers within Germany and increasingly around the world.
Contrary to their claims, this criticism is not part of some coordinated campaign, but a direct and legitimate response to Potter’s journalistic malpractice. His reporting is consistently one-sided, ethically problematic, and often discriminatory—toward Palestinians, Muslims, political dissidents, and those expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people.
His articles embody an almost unconditional solidarity with Israel and contribute to the justification of state violence against Palestinians—perpetrated by a state whose leading politicians are currently facing genocide allegations from international institutions.
The fact that Nicholas Potter is starting an internship at the Jerusalem Post in Jerusalem — in the midst of an ongoing genocide — a newspaper that acts as an extension of the Israeli propaganda network, speaks to a certain moral degeneration in the self-understanding of a journalist.
Nicholas Potter is a product—and at the same time a symbol—of the manipulative practices in the German media landscape, which is undergoing an accelerated process of decay.
Some would say: He embodies the misery of German journalism.
Disinformation as a Strategy of Delegitimization
The current campaign against red.media is a troubling strategy of modern disinformation strategies perpetrated by the ruling class and its lackeys. At its core is the deliberate use of unfounded accusations, which are amplified in a circular, constantly repeating process by media outlets and political actors, and ultimately presented them as supposed facts. This is reminiscent of the strategies of authoritarian governments, both today and in the past. The aim: to publicly delegitimize and criminalize dissenting voices—especially those who stand up for Palestine.
The rollout of this strategy against red.media began with a Tagesspiegel article speculating that red.media was a successor to the Russian-funded digital platform Redfish—without a shred of concrete evidence and based solely on the professional connections of a few individuals. This speculation was later repeated as “fact” in an official statement by then U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, directly (and only) citing Tagesspiegel as a source, even though the source material itself contained no evidence. Then Tagesspiegel euphorically covered Blinken’s statement; their original unsubstantiated claim had been picked up and recycled into “fact” by the simple act of it being uttered from the lips of one of the most powerful politicians in the world who is complicit for the genocide in Gaza. But the fact remained: there was still no evidence.
Thus, an original baseless assumption gains apparent credibility through political repetition. This feedback loop—where speculation references its own media coverage as proof—is a classic method of discursive escalation. This is professional disinformation.
The mechanism follows a clear pattern:
- An unsubstantiated assumption is made public.
- Political or journalistic institutions pick it up and spread it.
- The original source of the claim then uses this response to reframe the assumption as a “confirmed fact” used as well by Reporters Without Borders Germany (Page 19).
This manipulation serves multiple purposes: to publicly discredit critical media actors, to strip them of institutional credibility, and to make them legally vulnerable. At the same time, it distracts from, and undermines, the actual work and investigations critical media professionals are engaged in—particularly when it comes to hot-button topics such as Palestinian solidarity or scrutiny of NATO’s malignant role in the world today.
Under the guise of journalism and the fight against disinformation, there is a growing impression that parts of the media and some journalists themselves have become actors in the German state’s information warfare—similar to what can be observed with media figures in Russia, China, or the United States.
What’s especially dangerous is that many journalists no longer question the original source of such “information.” The allegation is adopted, amplified—and with each uncritical repetition it is cemented in the public perception as truth.
This strategy exploits journalism’s credibility in order to undermine it. It claims to fight disinformation—while deploying its very mechanisms. This same strategy is used to justify the crimes committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
We asked all those who repeated these falsehoods as facts to show us whether they had actually fact-checked these allegations and verified them before publishing. We asked newspapers, journalists—even Reporters Without Borders Germany. None of them have replied or provided any proof or insight into their verification process to this day.
Good Imperialist, Bad Imperialist
A central tactic of the German media’s smear campaign is the repeated, baseless claim that we are either a continuation of redfish or a Russian disinformation outlet. These allegations are not just false—they are strategic.
They aim to:
a. criminalize legitimate pro-Palestinian voices by spinning a conspiracy narrative that ties us to Russia
b. justify repression, arrests, prosecution, or even sanctions against red.media and its members
c. attack dissenting voices and propagate the idea that Western imperialism is better than Russian imperialism
d. create an atmosphere where journalists have to censor themselves due to fear of repression or criminal charges
None of the outlets pushing this narrative have asked us about our stance on Russia, the war in Ukraine, or NATO. Not one. Even though we invited them to do so. This omission is deliberate—because our actual position would dismantle their story and disinformation strategy.
Redfish was funded by RUPTLY, a Russian company based in Germany. This information is not the result of investigative journalism. On the contrary, it was openly communicated on Redfish’s website and was not part of any concealment tactic.
We have repeatedly made our position clear: Russia is an imperialist power pursuing its own geopolitical interests like the U.S., China, EU, and NATO. We reject all their policies and military actions. We have publicly criticized the invasion of Ukraine and reported on opposition figures being arrested, and made clear in our reporting that this war is a war between two imperialist blocs. Still, German media ignores these facts. Instead, they rely on propaganda tactics that echo the disinformation playbooks of darker times. This is not journalism—it is criminal behavior.
These facts are systematically ignored by German media. Instead, discrediting methods are used that have more in common with propaganda than with journalism. Through the constant repetition of unsubstantiated allegations, an artificial “evidentiary framework” is constructed—a classic disinformation tactic.
Let us be clear. We do take a side in this war: we stand with every voice calling for an end to the violence. We stand with those in Ukraine and Russia and across the world who resist imperialism—those who suffer, those who mourn, those who dare to dissent. We stand with those paying the price for it: working-class people in Ukraine and Russia and everywhere else.
We will take legal action against each journalist, outlet, foundation, trade union, and their representatives involved in spreading this disinformation campaign. We hold you accountable for any type of repression against red.media and its members.
The German State, Media and Civil Society’s Double Standards
The same journalists who now spin tales of “Kremlin-run radical left Palestinian networks” were silent when Israel systematically killed over 200 journalists in Gaza—an enclave less than half the size of Berlin.
They were also silent when Helmi Al-Faqawi and Yousef Al-Khazindar were burned alive on camera just recently, killed by a direct strike from the Israeli army.
These same journalists led a vicious campaign against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
They criminalized participants of the Palestine Congress in Berlin and fabricated a threat scenario that ultimately led to the event’s violent shutdown by police.
With these journalists cheering from the sidelines, over the past 18 months, international politicians, artists, and scholars, some of them Jewish, have been banned from entering Germany. Professors have been smeared as antisemites—solely for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, protesting alongside students, or simply demanding a ceasefire.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine—and increasingly since October 7, 2023—a segment of the German media landscape has abandoned all pretense of journalistic objectivity, acting instead as an extension of state power and colluding in the systematic marginalization of critical voices which are more needed than ever as the state both shifts rapidly to the far right and paves the way for it to take power.
We note also how the aforementioned section of German media is also facilitating this far-right takeover, while they, along with even trade unionists, loudly champion “freedom of speech” and the need to “tolerate dissent in a democracy” to defend the extreme far-right AfD, but simultaneously descend into panic when someone questions Germany’s “Staatsräson” of standing without question by Israel, or its direct complicity in Israel’s war crimes.
Despite the superficial moral panic about the AfD’s rise which some German media have engaged in, there is a noticeable shift amongst even the far-right’s harshest critics towards their defense. Increasingly, freedom of speech is reserved only for the political right. Those who express solidarity with Palestine under threat of state, social, or media repression—those who march against Nazis—are silenced, beaten, or even almost deported. That is the moral compass of many German media actors today. The fact that they are now outraged over a factually correct post about a “journalist” reveals their true priorities.
Media Repression in the Name of Germany’s Staatsräson
This latest campaign once again seeks to fabricate a threat scenario. Perpetrators are turned into victims. Independent media and journalists who refuse to submit to the German Staatsräson are to be silenced. Activists are publicly discredited.
This is reminiscent of the strategies of authoritarian governments, both today and in the past. The aim: to publicly delegitimize and criminalize dissenting voices—especially those who stand up for Palestine.
All of this occurs within a closed loop of propagandistic self-validation: ideologically aligned journalists recruit like-minded individuals from think tanks and foundations, fabricate “evidence” that is then used to justify defamation and state repression. All of this wrapped in the guise of a fight against “antisemitism” or defending press freedom.
As we have seen across the “Western” world, the proclaimed cause of fighting antisemitism, tragically, more often than not has come to have nothing to do with protecting Jewish life. It has been so abused as to be nothing more than a synonym for criminalizing even the mildest critique of Israel, and in Germany’s case, its Staatsräson.
The campaign against red.media is not a democratic struggle for the truth, but part of a vicious war on dissent unfolding in Germany—dissent that we need now more than ever.
Under Escalating Repression, red.media Is Forced to Shut Down
Amid mounting repression and direct threats to our team’s safety — including danger to their lives — red.media, a project of Istanbul-based AFA Medya A.Ş., can no longer operate.
The safety of our contributors, supporters, and followers is no longer guaranteed. This is not a voluntary decision. It is the result of a coordinated crackdown led by the German government, backed by the EU, and carried out by German media outlets, unions, and foundations. It is repressive, unlawful — and dangerous.
As we’ve warned: today we are the target. Tomorrow it will be you. What we are witnessing is the global normalization of repression — where speaking out against genocide is being criminalized.
red.media was never the real threat. Our reach was. In just the first nine months of 2024, we surpassed 483 million views. What they fear is a growing, defiant voice against racism, fascism, apartheid, genocide, and imperialism.
We are proud of what we built — and proud to be silenced for telling the truth. We refused to look away from live-streamed genocide. We stood firm. But we were never alone. This was only possible because of all of you — those who take to the streets and speak out daily, despite state violence and repression, and pay the highest price.
We remain firmly committed to the Palestinian people’s demand for one democratic state, where all communities can live together in peace.
Our X and Telegram channels will remain active, voluntarily run — to document the continued criminalization of red.media and others.
To everyone who stood with us: thank you. This is not defeat. As Palestinian revolutionary George Habash said
As long as you are still fighting in defense of your dignity and for your occupied land, all is well
We have already won. We informed, trained, and inspired people across the globe. Now it’s your turn to go further.
Long live the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, apartheid, and all oppression.
Free Palestine.
Press contact: info (at) thered (dot) stream
