Mathias Dopfner has defended his media group Axel Springer’s long-standing support for Israel’s right to exist, after journalists at Politico raised concerns over his public commentary on the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking in an internal meeting with staff, Dopfner said employees who disagree with the company’s core principles \u2014 known internally as \u201cthe essentials\u201d \u2014 may be better suited to work elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNobody should work for Axel Springer despite the essentials or in disagreement with one of the essentials,\u201d he said, according to audio obtained by the Jewish Insider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the essentials are not attractive, if the essentials are not a magnet, if the essentials are not a reason why to work for this company, I can only recommend working for other companies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The remarks came during a 40-minute meeting with Politico employees following complaints from journalists over opinion articles Dopfner had written. Staff is said to have argued that his views risked undermining the outlet’s editorial neutrality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The controversy centres on Axel Springer’s corporate principles, which include support for Israel’s right to exist as a core value. The Berlin-based publisher \u2014 which also owns Bild, the Telegraph and Business Insider \u2014 has long described these principles as central to its identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the discussion, Dopfner rejected claims that his personal views could influence Politico’s newsroom, stressing a clear distinction between opinion writing and editorial decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he would continue writing opinion pieces and defended his remarks on Iran, arguing that describing its leadership as an aggressor was justified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe wording is more of a euphemism,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should rather say they’re terrorists, or they are mass murderers.\u201d – AA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mathias Dopfner has defended his media group Axel Springer’s long-standing support for Israel’s right to exist, after journalists at Politico raised concerns over his public commentary on the Middle East. Speaking in an internal meeting with staff, Dopfner said employees who disagree with the company’s core principles \u2014 known internally as \u201cthe essentials\u201d \u2014 may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,168],"tags":[443,165,15,444,446,445],"class_list":{"0":"post-3130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-secondary-story","8":"category-world","9":"tag-axel-springer","10":"tag-genocide","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-mathias-dopfner","13":"tag-politico","14":"tag-telegraph"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3132,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130\/revisions\/3132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}