Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Corporation (RBB) has largely retracted its reporting on the allegations against Green Party MP Stefan Gelbhaar. The broadcaster had reported on various accusations against Gelbhaar in recent weeks, which ultimately led to the MP not running for a secure spot on the party’s list for the early Bundestag election and losing his direct mandate candidacy, despite denying all the allegations.
A particularly serious accusation concerned a supposed affidavit of a woman. Now, the RBB has admitted that it is likely that this woman does not even exist. Apparently, the broadcaster did not thoroughly verify the identity of the person who made the allegations. Der Tagesspiegel, which first raised doubts about the RBB’s reporting, writes that there was “only a phone contact” between the RBB and the person who made the allegations before the original publication of the accusations. The broadcaster stated that the press office was not staffed at the weekend, and questions were not initially answered.
Besides the obvious lack of journalistic diligence, the question now arises as to who might have supplied the RBB with allegedly fabricated information. According to the broadcaster, it is “certain” that a Green Party district politician is behind it, who, however, denies this.
The Green Party leaders, Franziska Brantner and Felix Banaszak, stated in response to a question from the Welt am Sonntag: “The suspicion that false statements were made to the press against another party member with serious accusations is grave.” They further stated: “Whoever makes false statements under oath in a process like this not only commits a criminal offense but also causes significant harm to the person, the party, the structures built on trust, and the other reporting individuals.”
A false affidavit, as per Paragraph 156 of the German Criminal Code, is only a criminal offense if it is made “before a competent authority for the taking of an affidavit” – and journalists are not involved in this at all.
Regardless of this, Brantner and Banaszak announced internal party consequences: “As soon as the person against whom this grave suspicion is directed is named and the suspicion is not immediately cleared, we will initiate a party expulsion procedure. Until the decision of the party court, this person will be excluded from exercising all membership rights.” They also consider it right that the RBB has initiated legal steps.
The former chair of the Green Party’s Bundestag faction, Kerstin Müller, believes the allegations against MP Gelbhaar of sexual harassment and his subsequent removal as a direct candidate in Berlin-Pankow were the result of an intrigue. “It’s being confirmed more and more that this was probably a plot to damage and remove an unwanted person from the public” she told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
Müller, who was the faction’s chair from 1998 to 2002 and is now a simple party member in Berlin-Pankow, added: “It can’t be a coincidence that the complaints were filed at the ombudsman’s office a day before the list was determined and then also leaked to the press. For me, the principle of innocence applies.” The woman who made the false allegations “has undoubtedly committed a criminal offense.