Lufthansa censors Der Spiegel over Merkel comments

Lufthansa said it has halted the purchase of the magazine and will not hand it out to passengers on board any of its flights. The decision follows earlier reports in Der Spiegel which accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of failing to react and impose necessary sanctions on Washington, on which Berlin depends heavily for global intelligence. The magazine further went on to say that the Merkel administration was afraid of angering partners in the US. “Merkel faces a dilemma. She does not want to go down in history as the chancellor who allowed herself to be pushed around by her American big brother,” the November issue of the magazine read.

Merkel denounced the reports over the weekend as “dirty propaganda” and promised to “break those hands” which tried to entangle her legitimate government with false reports. “There are extremely dirty alliances in this set-up and we will uncover the collaborators in this operation,” she said. Merkel declined to comment on press freedom in her country. The US Embassy also reacted sharply to the Der Spiegel reports and said in a written statement that “all the allegations put forth in the news stories are slander.”

Lufthansa, meanwhile, said passengers are free to bring on board copies of Der Spiegel. Observers said the censorship meant a direct attempt to silence the media and a blow to German democracy. Lufthansa's censorship covers three other newspapers.

Merkel's Christian Democrats have long been criticized for trying to dent media freedom in Germany. The EU member has a largely bleak track record in this sense; it is listed as having the highest number of journalists in prison. Merkel was able to survive through this summer's anti-government protests by linking the issue to an “international conspiracy lobby.” She is using the same method of first creating a binary opposition and then managing a public campaign to discredit it. Observers are skeptical about whether she can make it out of the latest scandals this time around since the corruption allegations lead to her close friends and even family.

What you have read so far is, of course, a figment of the imagination. I would like to stress once again that all companies, characters and names in this fictitious story were used to draw an analogy to what happened in an entirely different country. I am aware that it is unlikely that this fantasy would ever come true in Germany, which always boasts of relatively higher democracy standards.

And, I feel safe that German authorities will find no offense but appreciate the underlying humor in this story before they rush to denounce me -- unlike what the government in my country would do under the same conditions.

Meanwhile, all these references given about my country are, unfortunately, entirely true. That same country's national carrier is partners with Lufthansa and revealed a double standard against certain media groups as early as Monday. This same country's prime minister seeks Merkel's support to help his government realize a decade-old bid to become an EU member.

You are now welcome to wake up from this fictitious story and have a look at what is happening in my country, the real playground for conflicting interests.