Overview

• Ex‑U.S. ambassador Richard Grenell urged on X that ZDF's Washington bureau chief Elmar Theveßen lose his visa, labeling him "linksradikal" and alleging incitement without providing evidence.
• Theveßen had described White House aide Stephen Miller as holding views partly rooted in ideology of the Third Reich, a comment tied to references to the jurist Carl Schmitt in a ZDF podcast.
• ZDF said Theveßen’s work is protected by press freedom and argued his remarks were contextualized, while the German Journalists’ Association condemned calls for visa withdrawal and wrote to the U.S. Embassy.
• Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned against impairing German reporters’ work in the U.S. as the administration proposes limiting journalist visas to 240 days, a change the government calls an unacceptable deterioration.
• Major German broadcasters urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Wadephul to press Washington to drop the plan, and no official action against Theveßen’s visa has been reported despite Grenell’s posts and online signaling by U.S. officials.