Germany Tagesschau
After the Eralp interview: Do the media have to stick to agreements?
Anyone who gives an interview to the media sometimes requests that the conversation be released before publication. However, agreements can be broken - what are the consequences? And what is the situation in the Eralp case?
Deutsch (original) ·Auto-translated to English
Background Eralp interview Do media have to stick to agreements? As of: October 30, 2026 • 3:56 p.m
Anyone who gives an interview to the media sometimes requests that the conversation be released before publication. However, agreements can be broken - what are the consequences? And what is the situation in the Eralp case?
In principle, journalists are allowed to publish what they have researched and learned. This guarantees freedom of the press. However, publication is excluded if personal rights are violated. In each individual case, courts must weigh up the rights of the person concerned and the media's interest in publishing.
On television and radio, an interview is usually broadcast without the interviewee approving the interview. With newspapers and online media, however, things are different: there it is common for interviews to be approved by the interviewee. Only if he agrees will the interview be published.
If such an agreement is broken and something is published that the interviewee does not want to see printed, he or she has a good chance of having the publication banned by the court. Courts view the authorization agreement as binding. It is a civil law contract that a newspaper must adhere to.
The formation of a government in Berlin is once again overshadowed by a debate about the Left Party. more
In the case of the information that Spiegel published about left-wing politician Elif Eralp, it is not clear whether it was also included in the interview arrangement. The information that Eralp was afraid of certain Hamas sympathizers was apparently accidentally sent to Der Spiegel.
Some media law experts therefore believe that the authorization agreement would only extend to the questions and answers in the interview, but not to the comments on the interview that were sent to Der Spiegel and which contained the explosive information about Eralp's fear. However, it remains to be seen whether the courts would see it that way and not object to the publication.
This topic in the program: tagesschau24 | News | Oct 30, 2026 | 9:00 a.m.The First | Daily news | Oct 29, 2026 | 8:00 p.m. Das Erste | Daily Topics | Oct 29, 2026 | 10:15 p.m