GERMANY’S socialist daily Junge Welt published a special eight-page supplement at the weekend on Defending Democratic Rights, ahead of a court case next month challenging state persecution of the newspaper.

The Morning Star’s sister paper has appeared routinely in the annual reports of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 1998, designated a threat for its “left-wing extremist political ideas,” with its stated opposition to capitalism deemed dangerous to the German constitution.

Junge Welt’s publisher Mai.8 launched a legal challenge in 2021, with a court hearing now due on July 18. It argues the designation breaches Article 5 of Germany’s Basic Law on freedom of the press.

Being labelled extremist bars it from advertising in certain public spaces including radio and on the train network, and is often used by other institutions like universities and libraries to block access.

“Freedom dies inch by inch,” editor Stefan Huth, managing director Dietmar Koschmieder and board chairman Michael Sommer say in their introduction to the special edition. “This is by no means just about Junge Welt.”