Overview

• Tagesschau removed its May 30 Instagram video on evangelical activities among professional footballers and revised the related tagesschau.de article to prevent any impression of blanket criticism of missionary work
• CDU MP Johannes Volkmann lodged a program complaint in early June, arguing that the report unfairly problematized Christian athletes’ faith expressions
• In a July 24 statement, NDR rejected Volkmann’s complaint as unfounded and found no breach of journalistic or legal requirements
• ARD-aktuell chief editor Marcus Bornheim said the original pieces did not question players’ religious freedom but acknowledged that some wording could be misinterpreted as a general reproach of missionary efforts
• Volkmann welcomed the article correction and video removal but said he still fundamentally disagrees with ARD-aktuell’s overall editorial judgment