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This ability, in Filipovic's eyes, is based on "sound research, accuracy, and respecting the protection of victims and the accused." In a way, the striving for public attention has become part of the crime itself." This represents an "extreme challenge" for journalists, notes Filipovic, adding that the ability to "classify and assess" events is of utmost importance. "The Internet gives criminals all sorts of possibilities to get their message out there. "It hasn't become any easier to make the right decisions in the pursuit of responsible journalism," Alexander Filipovic, professor for media ethics at the University of Münster, told DW.
#Movie the hostage professional
Nowadays, live streams on social media and photos taken by so-called civil reporters have blurred the distinction between eyewitnesses and professional journalists. Michael Konken, head of Germany's largest journalists union (DJV), refers to the Gladbacker drama as "the darkest hour of German journalism since the end of WWII." As a direct consequence, the national press council issued a number of reprimands and drew up tighter controls for the coverage of such affairs.Īn ethical debate was also held in the media landscape itself, with several papers concluding that such coverage "should never happen again." Today, it is illegal for any media outlet to conduct interviews with hostage takers while the crime is taking place.īut has anything really changed? These rules seem at first glance almost impossible to control in our modern era of digital reporting and social media. Read more: '7 Days in Entebbe:' Real-life hostage drama starring Daniel Brühl hits Berlinaleĭegowski posing with his gun on the hijacked bus in Bremen on August 18, 1988
Was the media partly responsible for the disaster? Media psychologist Jo Groebel, for one, argues that the journalists who covered the affair not only satisfied the hostage takers' desire for recognition and attention - they also "incited" the criminals to prove themselves in their brutal megalomania. That particular reporter faced harsh criticism for his actions after the affair, even facing allegations of complicity, but nevertheless he later became the editor-in-chief of Germany's most-read tabloid, Bild.īy the time the drama had reached its end, two hostages were dead (including one of the female hostages who had been photographed with a gun held to her throat) and a number of others traumatized. One reporter even made his way into the getaway car to direct the hostage takers through the streets of Cologne - a city with which they were apparently unfamiliar. Iconic photographs were taken of hostages being interviewed with guns held to their throats. A sense of excitement and fascination, horror and disbelief were palpable throughout the country. Radio reporters let the hostage takers themselves give their take on how the situation developed, with one of the two gangsters saying at one point, "from here on I only want to speak through the media."Įveryone in Germany - at least anyone with television or radio access - was able to follow the entire showdown live. Journalists fought for the best position from which to depict the events. Gunman Hans-Juergen Rösner gave interviews to the press while hostages were in the carīy the end of the pursuit that saw Degowski and Rösner drive through Germany in a stolen bus, taking a total of 32 people hostage, photo journalists had all the time in the world to snap shots of the bus and the people inside.
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