Major German print publications have played to the tune of the German government in presenting the migrant crisis to the public, ignoring critical issues in their coverage of the biggest refugee flow into Europe since WWII, a new German study revealed.
After analysis of thousands of articles published in Germany between February 2015 and March 2016, researchers at the Hamburg Media School and the University of Leipzig found that major German publications failed to objectively cover the refugee crisis.
The report is available on the website of the Otto Brenner Foundation. According to German media, the full study will be officially published on Monday.
The investigation accuses mainstream newspapers such as Bild, Die Welt, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, of being in lockstep with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy.
More than 1.6 million asylum-seekers are estimated to have entered Europe between 2014 and 2016, leading to the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. From 2015 on, Chancellor Merkel’s government has conducted what is now known as the ‘open-door’ policy, despite an avalanche of criticism from the public.