Did a senior CDU leader just endorse censoring the media?

Dear Reader,

Did one of the most senior figures in the CDU just call for news outlets that produce sensationalist content to be censored or banned? That is the explosive question at the centre of a debate on freedom of speech that has been simmering in Germany this month.

Daniel Günther, the minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein, described new media outlets that have emerged in the digital age as “enemies of democracy” that were “carrying out political agitation, not journalism”. If politicians failed to “stand up” to such outlets, German democracy would be “unrecognisable” in ten years’ time, he said during an appearance on the country’s most popular evening talk show.

The host asked whether he was advocating “regulation, censorship or, if necessary, bans”. Günther replied: “Yes.”

He went on to name names, singling out the website NIUS — often described as a German equivalent of Breitbart or GB News — which has gained popularity (and notoriety) for its polemical reporting on issues su…