Propaganda In Germany

Here is a good example on how the media misses the boat to create  a completely false impression in order to get sound bites or to create controversy.

The most recent tirade in Germany directed against the Church of Scientology was reported on an Associated Press article, “Germany Officials Call For Scientology Ban” which was then carried around the world.

The article omits the fact that the German Ministers of Interior conference Dec. 7 did not vote for a motion to instigate procedures to ban Scientology.

Instead, those officials recognized that there is no evidence to support such a motion. Furthermore, Federal Minister of Interior Wolfgang Schauble in an interview with German Radio, also on Dec. 7, conceded that there is no legal basis for such a procedure.

The original false report that was carried in the media originated with a story in the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag (and released internationally by the Associated Press) that mischaracterizes the result of the conference and omits the fact that there was no vote on the motion.

Also omitted is the information that there have been more than 40 German court decisions acknowledging the church’s religiosity, including a decision of the Federal Administrative Court is omitted from the reporting. These court decisions have repeatedly validated the rights of the Church of Scientology to operate per Article 4 of the German Constitution, have affirmed that its services are religious, that the church has the right to disseminate its teachings, that church staff members are motivated by idealistic and spiritual purposes, and that its fundraising methods are fair and aligned to what is expected of a charitable organization.

The Church and its members have been subjected to ten years of surveillance by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution which has uncovered absolutely no wrongdoing.  Yet, because it has been made a political issue, the OPC is forced to continue to “investigate”.  False statements that the Church of Scientology somehow has anti-Constitutional aims get made from time to time for political purposes and to justify the waste of taxpayer money.

Scientology has no political aims and does not seek to displace Germany’s existing churches which are state supported and beholden to the German state.

~ by mikebert on December 18, 2007.