Der Spiegel editor-in-chief defends ‘beheading’ cover, says Germany should ‘stand up against’ Trump
RT.com
6 Feb, 2017
The editor-in-chief of German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel has defended a highly controversial cover depicting US President Donald Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. He also called on Germany “to build an alliance” against the US leader.
“Der Spiegel does not want to provoke anybody,” Klaus Brinkbaumer, Der Spiegel editor-in-chief and the executive editor of Der Spiegel Online, told Reuters, adding that the media outlet is actually “defending democracy” in “serious times.”
“We want to show what this is about, it’s about democracy, it’s about freedom, it’s about freedom of the press, freedom of justice and all that is seriously endangered,” he said, referring to the cover published on Saturday’s magazine.
It featured the distinctive figure of Trump holding the bleeding head of the Statue of Liberty in one hand and a bloodstained knife in the other.
“On our cover the American president beheads the symbol which has welcomed migrants and refugees to the United States since 1886, and with democracy and freedom,” Brinkbaumer told the German news agency DPA, implying that the cover was a response to Trump’s executive order temporarily banning travelers and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, which was dubbed ‘the Muslim ban.’
Der Spiegel is one of Europe’s largest weekly magazines, and the cover provoked a heated discussion on social media both in Germany and abroad, and drew criticism from other German media outlets and some politicians.
‘Irresponsible’ exaggeration ‘devalues journalism’
Germany’s Die Welt daily sharply criticized the cover, saying that it “damages” and “devalues journalism.” It also stressed that those who decided to depict Trump in such a way, comparing him to Islamist terrorists, had “lost all their moral guidelines.”
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