Bild editor steps aside pending probe into conduct

The editor-in-chief of Germany’s best-selling newspaper Bild Zeitung has temporarily stepped aside pending an internal probe into accusations of alleged abuse of power.

The investigation into Julian Reichelt was first reported by the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel earlier this week.

In a statement, the media company Axel Springer, which owns Bild, said Reichelt denied the allegations. But he had asked to be temporarily released from his duties, “so as to ensure the investigation can proceed unhindered and to no longer impinge on the work of the editorial staff”. It said the company had acceded to his request.

The probe represents a big personal blow for Reichelt, a hard-charging populist noted for his diatribes against Angela Merkel, Germany’s veteran chancellor, and for strident criticism of her government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bild courted controversy last year with its vitriolic attacks on Christian Drosten, head of the Institute of Virology at Berlin’s Charité Hospital and a leading adviser to the Merkel government on coronavirus policy.

Axel Springer said its compliance department had hired external experts in order to make sure the matter was cleared up “expeditiously, thoroughly and independently”. It said it was “researching in all directions, without prejudging the outcome, and assessing the credibility and integrity of all those involved”.

Springer said the company had to distinguish between rumours, indications and proof. “If indications turn into proof, the management will act,” it said. “So far, there is no such proof.”

“To proceed on the basis of rumours and prejudgements is unthinkable in Axel Springer’s corporate culture,” it went on. It declined to provide information about the allegations being made against Reichelt.

Springer said Alexandra Würzbach, editor-in-chief of Bild’s Sunday’s edition, would temporarily take over Reichelt’s duties.

Previously head of Bild’s digital edition, Reichelt took over as editor-in-chief in 2018 having squeezed out the previous incumbent Tanit Koch, the paper’s first female editor. In her departure note to staff she said the two had failed to build up a “harmonious relationship”.

Reichelt is now suing Der Spiegel over the report, saying he had not been made acquainted with the accusations against him before its publication, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In an internal note to staff seen by the Financial Times, Reichelt said: “I will defend myself against those who want to destroy me, because they don’t like Bild and everything we stand for. [Against] those who write about me without listening to me first, because my answers have never suited them.”

Axel Springer was once a public company but in 2019 its chief executive Mathias Döpfner did a deal with KKR to take it private. He said at the time that the deal would free the media group from short-term market scrutiny and allow it to invest for the long term.