The most severe case of repression against a journalist in Germany, not by the German state itself but by the EU, is the case of Hüseyin Doğru.

Dogru worked in the past for the media outlet Redfish, which was financed by Russian news agency Ruptly (Ruptly is owned by RT, which is funded by the Russian government). Redfish was one of the first media outlets to be labeled as Russian-state affiliated media shortly after the invasion of Russia in Ukraine in 2022 and was banned from YouTube and all Meta platforms.

After that, Dogru founded an independent media organization by the name of Red.media. The coverage of Red. focused primarily on Israel’s genocidal actions and the German state’s crackdown on pro-Palestine mobilizations, as well as German complicity in the war.

Red. was targeted from the very beginning, without clear evidence presented, through media smear campaigns, through disinformation as a strategy of delegitimization alleging antisemitism, support of terrorism and ongoing Russian ties.

Former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accused Red. in a press conference in Sept. 2024 as a direct successor to Redfish, claiming “RT covertly runs” it. This led to the EU Commission imposing sanctions on Doğru, a German citizen, on May 20, 2025. Immediately Red.media announced its closure.

The sanctions were imposed in the context of the Russia sanctions package. The EU claims on the one hand that Doğru’s previous work indicates ongoing structural and financial ties with the Russian state and on the other hand, the EU argues that the coverage of Palestinian issues by Red. is fueling misinformation and social distortion that only Russia can benefit from.

As Doğru points out to Unicorn Riot: “What everyone thinks is accounts being frozen and maybe a travel ban, which I have as well. But it goes further. I am not allowed to buy food, I am not allowed to buy water, I am not allowed to buy medicine. Any money exchange is forbidden for me.”

For Doğru, the EU sanctions imposed on him are “setting a precedent right now, where journalism itself right now can be sanctioned, can be criminalized and punished if it does not serve the benefits of the imperialists, in this case Germany and the European Union.”

He concluded: “I’m going to fight these sanctions, because these sanctions are illegal, they are extrajudicial, there was no court, there was no hearing, there was no sentencing.”

Full story and more in links below.