The online news portal T-Online is today (November 28) leading with a story about my case and a false press release issued by the Federal Police, which links me to criminal activity. T-Online sees “inconsistencies,” stating that an alleged witness is “a phantom.” Author Carsten Janz concludes: “The investigation file is either incomplete or manipulated.” Armin Bohnert, chair of the association “Polizei Grün”, criticizes that “the overall circumstances of the investigation and the unusual nature of the press work, given the unclear nature of the alleged offense, fuel the suspicion that a critical journalist is being deliberately targeted.”
I will soon file a lawsuit against the Federal Police’s press release at the Administrative Court and will keep you updated here as well as on Bluesky and Mastodon.
Update February 23rd, 2026:
At the beginning of February, the Cologne Administrative Court, which handles administrative law cases in Germany, provisionally ruled in the ongoing proceedings (Case No. 20 K 8546/24) that the Federal Police are responsible for providing evidence to support the statements made in their press release. In a letter dated February 6, the court instructed the Federal Police to provide the names and contact information of the three alleged witnesses mentioned in the press release within two weeks. The documents only included the name of one witness, and only the testimony of that witness was recorded, according to the court.
In a subsequent letter dated February 13, the court provisionally declared the press release unlawful. The Federal Police Directorate Sankt Augustin has since removed the press release from its website.
One of the media outlets that had reported on the press release, “GBS News-Online,” has permanently removed its report and published a correction. The correction notes that I was “falsely accused as a journalist” and states, “We apologize for having relayed the false claims made by the Federal Police”.
Update February 24th, 2026:
The reporting judge in the chamber proceedings at the Administrative Court called my lawyer. He informed the Federal Police that he considers my lawsuit challenging the press release to be well-founded and, in his preliminary view, that I am entitled to a declaration of unlawfulness. He plans to schedule a hearing, which I will share here.
Update February 27th, 2026:
I have now received a letter in which the Federal Police Directorate Sankt Augustin declares that “in the administrative court proceedings Marvin Oppong vs. Federal Republic of Germany – 20 K 8546/24 […] the publication of the disputed press release of November 7, 2021, was unlawful.”
As a journalist, I had published on racial profiling. I then became the target of a false press release from the Federal Police in what was at the time a CSU-led interior ministry. Serious false accusations were made against me as a Black journalist. Now officially: unlawful.
Update March 10th, 2026:
The media industry service “Turi2” reported yesterday: “Federal Police deletes press release accusing Marvin Oppong of inciting foreign travelers”.
Update March 12th, 2026:
Since then, further media outlets have removed their online reports that had taken up the false Federal Police press release: Ruhr24.de, Radio Wuppertal, and most recently today Radio Bonn/Rhein-Sieg.
The State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia (LfM) reviewed the online report of Radio Wuppertal following my complaint and today informed me that it had “identified a possible breach of journalistic diligence”. It is considered a possible breach because the removal of the article remedied the “violation of § 19 MStV [Media State Treaty]”.
A passage that took the Federal Police press release in the indicative mood should “have been consistently written in the subjunctive to make it sufficiently clear to readers that it refers to an alleged event”, according to the media authority.
Update March 16th, 2026:
The General-Anzeiger Bonn (GA) has also removed its report. The editorial office did not want to comment prior to my inquiry. In 2023, I had asked the GA via my lawyer to depublish the article.
Update March 18th, 2026:
The LfM has now also identified a possible “breach of journalistic diligence in telemedia (§ 19 MStV)” in the Radio Bonn/Rhein-Sieg article. The article, including its headline, should have been consistently written in the subjunctive. By removing the 2021 article recently, the broadcaster preempted the finding of a violation. “Turi2” published a report about this today.
Update March 25th, 2026:
In the meantime – according to the data protection department there, after consultation with the legal department – both the Wuppertaler Rundschau and, most recently today, the Westdeutsche Zeitung have also removed their publications. A correction in accordance with the Press Code must be “rejected for legal reasons”, as I was “not identifiable at any time” in the publication, according to the head of internal services at the Wuppertaler Rundschau. This means that seven publications that picked up the Federal Police press release have now been taken offline by the respective publishing media.
Update March 18th, 2026:
In my lawsuit against the Federal Police, the Cologne Administrative Court has scheduled an oral hearing before a single judge for Wednesday, May, 20th 2026, at 11:00 a.m., in courtroom 160, 1st floor. The subject of evidence is the police check at Wuppertal Central Station on October 31st, 2021, as well as events at the police station following the check.
As early as February, the Cologne Administrative Court ordered the Federal Police to provide the addresses of two additional alleged witnesses. This did not happen. The court has now requested that the Federal Police submit, within one week, the names and serviceable addresses of the two remaining witnesses.
One witness and two Federal Police officers have been summoned. In the Federal Police’s criminal complaint to the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office, it states regarding the summoned witness and the second alleged witness: “two Afghan nationals without identification documents … related to each other.” The summoned witness made “oral statements regarding both individuals, as his fifteen-year-old cousin did not have sufficient command of the German language.” The court has also summoned an interpreter for the Dari and Pashto languages for the oral hearing. The complaint further states: “The cousin’s personal details were not recorded in the Central Register of Foreign Nationals. There was a suspicion of unlawful residence in the federal territory.” The third alleged witness is described in the complaint as a “Greek national”.
Update May 6th, 2026:
On April 27th, the Federal Police Directorate in Sankt Augustin informed the Administrative Court of Cologne that the addresses of the two additional witnesses “were not recorded” and are “otherwise not known” to the Federal Police. The Federal Police did not state whether the names of the witnesses are known to them.
The judge, by letter dated May 4th, requested the Federal Police Directorate Sankt Augustin to inform the Cologne Administrative Court without delay whether the names of the other two witnesses are known to them.
In addition, on May 4th the court instructed the summoned witness to provide the court without delay, no later than within seven days, with the names and addresses of the two individuals who, together with him, were said to have been checked by the Federal Police at Wuppertal Central Station on October 31st, 2021, and taken to the police station.
The Federal Police Directorate Sankt Augustin informed the court on May 5th that the names of the other two involved witnesses had also not been recorded and are not known. This is noteworthy because their alleged nationalities are mentioned in the press release.
The required data of witnesses are collected during questioning in the investigative proceedings in accordance with Sections 68 et seq. of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The identity of the person must be established beyond doubt, and it must be possible to contact them in case of follow-up questions or if further questioning is necessary. Section 68 of the Code of Criminal Procedure refers to “first names, last names, birth names, age, occupation, and full address.”
Update May 14th, 2026:
The summoned witness — the controlled Afghan national — called the court on Friday (May 8th). He said that he did not know what the incident of October 31st, 2021 was about, and that he had initially assumed the summons was part of a scam and therefore threw it away. He announced that he will appear on May 20.
The chances have increased considerably that I will also win the proceedings with regard to the claim for retraction. The single judge stated that he no longer maintains his preliminary view that the burden of proof for the falsity of a statement of fact – as a prerequisite for the retraction of the press release – lies with me as the claimant. Rather, the burden of proof for the truth of a factual assertion is likely to lie with the authority, in this case the Federal Police, even in actions seeking retraction of the contested statement.
Update from May 21st, 2026:
On 20 May 2026, the oral hearing took place at the Cologne Administrative Court (VG Köln). A detailed report on this can be found here.
Update from May 25th, 2026:
On 22 May, the Federal Police Directorate Sankt Augustin published a statement on presseportal.de in which it is explained that key factual claims made in the press release were incorrect.
Update from June 4th, 2026:
One of the media outlets that picked up the press release, Ruhr24, released a publication on June 1st titled “Federal Police Admit Error: Statements About NRW Journalists Are False”.