The SPD politician Thilo Sarrazin is known for his provocative statements about immigration and Islam. As we reported last night, Mr. Sarrazin was recently a guest speaker at an event at the University of Siegen, and was vigorously protested by progressive students.

The video below is an editorial comment by RTL WEST head Jörg Zajonc, who objects to the widespread attempts to silence dissident opinions.

Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

However, the uniformity of opinion decried by Mr. Zajonc is not a bug in German culture, but a feature. It is seen as the responsibility of teachers, journalists, and commentators to ensure that their audience is directed towards the correct opinions.

As MissPiggy (who translated this one, too) put it:

The state broadcasting agitator Anja Reschke declared on Swiss television (on the German-language network 3sat) to the stunned presenter that in Germany, journalists have an “educational mission”, because the citizens would otherwise overthrow “the government”.

Once again, thanks to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript #1:

00:00 RTL WEST — Daily — 6pm 00:03 RTL WEST — The New Magazine — for all NRW [North Rhine-Westphalia] 00:07 A lecture about freedom of speech is being protested, because the person giving the lecture 00:11 has an opinion. An opinion that’s not allowed. And anyone supports him is a Nazi. 00:16 Exaggerate much? Who determines what is allowed to be said or not said? 00:20 How about what opinions we’re allowed to have or not have? Of course, only those which don’t 00:24 break any current laws. There has been an increase in people who feel morally superior, 00:29 and they have declared war on people who think differently. More recently, even to the point 00:32 of spilling blood. They are creating an atmosphere of fear, and call it freedom. 00:36 They threaten others and call it peaceful. They call for togetherness and practice marginalisation. 00:41 This is always done in the name of a supposedly tolerant society, but that’s not tolerant at all. 00:46 It is perverted. The word for tolerance come from Latin. It means to bear, suffer, endure. 00:52 You can only be tolerant when you put up with something you oppose. Only then are you 00:57 enduring it. My request is that you speak with each other, listen to each other 01:02 and stop the abuse. Not everything we think is always right. 01:06 And not everything the other thinks is always wrong. 01:10 RTL WEST — Daily — 6pm 01:13 RTL WEST — The New Magazine — for all NRW



Video transcript #2 (Note: this is a composite and shows the times from two separate original clips):