'Fake News' Blunder as German Court 'Bans' Neo-Nazi Group NPD

A German magazine noted for its highbrow tone and accuracy was forced to apologize after misreporting a court ruling on the far-right neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) with some taking to social media suggesting Kremlin involvement.

Germany's Supreme Court has — for the second time — ruled that the NPD cannot be banned, despite attempts by the federal government to have it proscribed for its ultranationalist views, promoting racism and anti-Semitism

National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD)

© Flickr / Tetedelacourse

However, the Federal Court ruled that — under the German constitution — the party was too small to form a recognizable political party that would constitute a threat to the German parliament. A ban can be imposed when German democratic order is under threat and a threshold of 5 percent is set as the threshold for a party to enter parliament.

"There are currently no concrete indications… that its actions will lead to success," the court ruled.

However, the story was bungled by magazine Der Spiegel which reported online that the NPD had been banned, having to make a quick apology when it realized its error.

#NPD-Eilmeldung: Wir haben einen ärgerlichen Fehler gemacht, aus dem wir lernen werden. https://t.co/JxNXi6kEYV #NPDVerbot

— SPIEGEL ONLINE (@SPIEGELONLINE) 17 January 2017

​"Today we reported falsely that the Federal Constitutional Court had banned the NPD. We can now explain how the error occurred. When the chairman of the Second Senate, Andreas Vosskuhle, began to speak, he quoted first the application for the NPD ban. The application was mistakenly confused with the — indeed different — verdict," the apology read.

The gaffe — with the headline "Federal Court Bans NPD" and picked up by other news outlets including Die Zeit newspaper- caused amusement on social media, with some joking the mistake may have had something to do with the Kremlin.

EIL +++ Spiegel Online nicht schuld an FakeNews zu NPD-Urteil / Experten sicher: Hackerattacke aus dem Kreml +++ EIL pic.twitter.com/nyAj2Igiri

— Felix Krautkrämer (@krk979) January 17, 2017​

@krk979 @HAMBURGonline pic.twitter.com/gxKj2wTEwV

— Harald Petermann (@HaraldPetermann) January 17, 2017​

Spiegel und Zeit von Putin gesteuert.
NPD Verbot #falschmeldung kam direkt vom Kreml.

— Peider Filli (@peider) January 17, 2017​

(Twitter: "Spiegel and Zeit controlled by Putin. NPD ban #fakenews directly from the Kremlin")

The NPD was banned from holding a demonstration in Cologne on New Year's Eve marking a year since a series of sexual assaults involving on women during the 2015/6 celebrations.