Statement on behalf of the German delegation of DJV

Dear collegues,

we, the DJV delegates, are fully convinced that yesterdays presidential election did not meet the requirements for a legal, democratic election.We all agree that something went wrong. It makes no difference if it was a mistake or manipulation.It makes no difference if the result was close or clear.It makes no difference if we, or the candidates, are happy with the result, if they can at least live with it, or not.No matter what: the election has not been performed properly!Ladies and gentlemen, we are journalists. It is our job to have an eye on such important mechanisms of democracy like elections. It is our duty to let people know about any irregularities we may discover in such cases – like more votes than voters. If anywhere in the world something strange happens at an election,we need to blame those who are responsible.How are we supposed to do that if we do not meet the standards ourselves that we are asking from others?For the sake of the journalists we represent, we need to give an example of truthfulness and integrity. If we fail to do so, we loose our credibility. Accepting an election that is even the slightest bit fishy will cause major damage to the IFJ and to our profession as such.The DJV delegation is not willing to participate in questionable procedures. We therefore declare that we will leave this congress right now, since the election will obviously not be repeated, as we still had hoped until this morning. Besides, we will consider to take further legal steps. Apart from that, we will suggest to the DJV board of executives to seriously consider to give up our IFJ membership that lasted for more than 60 years. We have been co-founders oft he IFJ in 1952.Wolfgang GrebenhofDublin, June 7th, 2013