1.  Debate | 05/02/2008

Coming to terms with the past in Eastern Europe

A central question for Europe's post-communist states is how to deal with the legacy of the old regimes, in particular the secret police files. Should they be closed and forgotten or made accessible to the public for review? » more

Creating a global public sphere

Wikileaks is publishing new content from the leaked US classified cables each day on the Internet. This method of publication restores some freedom to readers and creates a global public sphere, writes the leftist tageszeitung approvingly: "Democracy can only function on the basis of transparency - yet at the same time it requires the option of secrecy. We are now moving within this tense relationship. It is fascinating to see how these opposing needs are now being balanced as readers watch. ... Journalists and all online readers are naturally watching closely what the competition abroad reveals - the sovereignty of the national editing departments in interpreting information is being put to the test. ... In this sense Wikileaks is showing once more that what we read in the press is what was thought and known at a particular point in time. To what extent this corresponds to reality must be subject to continual re-examination. ... The notion of the informed reader is dangerous populism, some say. True. But without it there can be no democracy."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Online media, » Germany, » Global

Shootings among youths

Ines Kappert notes that following the foiled school attack in Cologne "the usual explanations" are coming into play. Yet she adds that the reaction of both the police and the school was correct in many respects. "Teachers took the warnings of alarmed pupils seriously and the school management was aware that November 20, 2007 is the anniversary of the massacre at a school in Emsdetten. It realised that shootings at schools are part of a global phenomenon which seriously disturbed pupils like Rolf B. want to be part of - because they crave attention, because they want revenge and because they believe all other forms of communication have failed them." Nonetheless, Kappert criticises the fact that the student in question was sent home after questioning: "Sending violently disposed, disoriented youths on their way is certainly not the solution."

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Germany

Jakob Tanner on Swiss populism

Following the election victory of the right-wing populist SVP, Swiss social historian Jakob Tanner explains his theories about the future direction of the Swiss brand of populism. In an interview with Ines Kappert he says: "Switzerland has never been a leftist country. Moreover, throughout the 20th century the fear of foreign infiltration was intense. In the 1930s Swiss nationalists played a pioneering role in the spread of xenophobic, anti-conservative propaganda. But back then it was still possible to control such tendencies. What's different now is that since the 1990s the SVP has been systematically undermining the conservative policies of the state which were always directed towards maintaining a fine balance and upholding liberal values. ... The fact that this small, neutral nation state is able to negotiate with the EU on a bilateral level and can therefore pick and choose what it likes has promoted the view that Switzerland can bolster its prosperity by securing a parasitic, niche function for itself."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Integration, » Minorities, » Social movements, » Switzerland
All available articles from » Jakob Tanner