Podcaster Ben Berndt sues NRW media authority

Podcaster Ben Berndt has filed a lawsuit against the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW at the Cologne Administrative Court. The legal action follows a dispute regarding an interview conducted on Berndt’s podcast, ‘Ungeskriptet’, featuring AfD politician Björn Höcke.

The conflict stems from a statement made by Höcke during the April 2026 interview, in which he claimed the Nazi-era SA (Sturmabteilung) did not have a motto. This contradicts previous court rulings in 2023 and 2024, which convicted Höcke for using the SA slogan ‘Alles für Deutschland’.

The NRW media authority asserted that Berndt failed to meet journalistic standards of care by not correcting or contextualizing the false statement. The authority had requested that Berndt retroactively clarify the passage and review his entire catalog of over 300 videos for compliance. Berndt, who argues his podcast is a platform for free expression rather than traditional journalism, views the authority's demands as censorship and an infringement on editorial freedom.