A concerning development has been highlighted in an article by Weltwoche on April 4, 2025, authored by Hans-Georg Maaßen. Friedrich Merz plans to have state-financed NGOs collaborate with authorities to silence critical journalists. It is evident that behind seemingly independent media organizations, a growing and opaque connection between government influences and political agendas is emerging.
Correctiv, a non-profit media organization, is a prime example of this. It has repeatedly been accused of not acting as a neutral source of information but as a political instrument, operating in the service of a specific ideology. This was particularly noticeable in January 2024, when Correctiv reported on a meeting in Potsdam, attended by author Martin Sellner, several AfD politicians and other political figures. The reporting on this meeting was highly exaggerated and compared to the historical Wannsee Conference of 1942, leading to a widespread campaign against the right, in which political opponents of the government were publicly attacked and discredited.
New Spy Agency Against Critical Media
It later emerged that Correctiv knew about the meeting before it even took place. A Correctiv employee was present at the hotel, but not as a journalist. There were also speculations that private conversations were being monitored, which Correctiv denies. This reporting led to massive public reactions and the strengthening of a political narrative targeting the government’s opponents.
However, the problematic connections between Correctiv and government offices go further. Before the meeting, there were conversations between Correctiv’s CEO, Jeannette Gusko and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, indicating a close relationship between the organization and the government. These entanglements raise questions about whether Correctiv is genuinely an independent actor or, in fact, an extended arm of the government.
Maaßen emphasizes that in a free society, journalism has the task of controlling the government, not the other way around. The misuse of such organizations, which disguise themselves as journalists but work politically motivated against opposition figures, should not be underestimated. In authoritarian or totalitarian states, similar methods were used by state intelligence agencies to pursue political opponents.
Correctiv, according to Maaßen, does not act as a journalism organization but as a kind of political intelligence agency. This agency uses the disguise of an independent media organization to spy on and discredit political enemies. Such practices are a clear sign of the shift in the media landscape towards an instrumental tool of political control.
“Correctiv is, in my view, a spy agency in the material sense, which, under the guise of being a journalistic and non-profit medium, at least to a significant extent pursues the goal of political enemy combat in the sense of the left ideology, by spying on and media-lynching real or suspected opponents of the ruling left-wing politics. It also engages in or supports campaigns in the sense of this politics, without paying attention to the truth content of the media-transmitted contents, but rather to the effectiveness from the outside.”
Maaßen suggests that the financing of such organizations should be stopped urgently to prevent further expansion of this problematic development. The case of Correctiv shows how media can be misused to combat political opponents with intelligence agency-like methods.