German news broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) is suspending its cooperation with Jordanian station Roya TV. "The reason for this is the discovery of anti-Israeli and antisemitic comments and caricatures in social media that were disseminated by the station," the German foreign broadcaster announced last Sunday.
Earlier on Friday, Vice magazine reported about the Roya TV channel and posts on the network. DW stressed that it regretted its original assessment that Roya TV was "not hostile to Israel."
The person responsible for sales, marketing, production, and technology at Deutsche Welle, Guido Baumhauer, said, "We apologize that we did not notice these disgusting images. After the questionable publications by Roya TV, we have to re-evaluate the cooperation."
He added that some content disseminated on the station's social media channels was not compatible with DW's values. "We will now internally review our selection of partners even more critically, especially with regard to anti-Semitism and racism."
Deutsche Welle said it had originally selected Roya TV for partnership because the station's programming addressed and strengthened, among other things, the promotion of media literacy among young people, gender equality, and the rights of minorities in Jordan.
"DW has the legal mandate to bring German and European perspectives into the international discourse. This can only succeed through dialogue. With a partner strategy that has proven itself over decades, especially in countries with limited freedom of expression and regional conflicts, DW has established an active dialogue with media partners in many countries," it said.
Apart from this case, Deutsche Welle is also currently having allegations of antisemitism against several of its own employees in the Arabic editorial department, as well as freelance employees abroad, investigated externally.