Axel Springer SE is a European multinational mass and online media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company is organized as a societas Europaea (SE) publishing house and is one of the largest mass media publishers in the European Union, with numerous multimedia news brands such as Business Insider, Politico, The Daily Telegraph, or the price comparison service Idealo.
Upon acquisition of Insider in 2015, and again in 2021 with Politico, Mathias Döpfner allegedly stated that staff would need to adhere to Axel Springer’s principles, including support for a united Europe, “reconciliation between Germans and Jews”, Israel’s right to exist, and a free-market economy, and that staff who disagree with the principles “should not work for Axel Springer, very clearly”.
Demanding such a pledge - instead of objectivity - from any journalist is bad, very bad.