North Rhine-Westphalia media authority drops case against podcast host Ben Berndt

The Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen announced it will not pursue legal action against Ben Berndt and his "Ungeskriptet" podcast. Earlier, the agency had requested that Berndt amend a passage about his conversation with Thüringen AfD chief Björn Höcke, where Höcke denied that the slogan "Alles für Deutschland" was an SA motto. The regulator now considers the issue resolved after the podcast provided the required contextual explanation.

In response, Berndt posted on X that the state was attempting to censor him. The authority emphasized that podcasts are subject to the same journalistic care obligations as traditional media under the Medienstaatsvertrag, a rule applied previously to other online several outlets.