Germany: press freedom does not take precedence over relations with Ukraine and Russia
Katrin WelkerOn 8 December 2015, the 6th Senate of the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg decided that the federal government is not obliged to give information to a representative of the press on a report of the German ambassador in Ukraine (OVG 6 S 37.15).
The plaintiff is the managing director of a charitable company, which operates a website with journalistic content. He tried to get answers from the government about the content of a report of the German ambassador in Ukraine regarding the military capability of the Ukrainian separatists to shoot down passenger aeroplanes. The plaintiff argued that the…