COLOGNE (GERMANY)
Deutsche Welle
January 5, 2021
Reporters walked out of a press event in Cologne after church officials asked them to sign a confidentiality agreement. The officials were due to discuss issues around a key report on child abuse. Journalists were asked to keep the contents of the report a “secret”
With the Catholic Church shaken by the child abuse scandal in Germany, journalists walked out of a press event organized by church representatives on Tuesday.
The Archdiocese of Cologne had called for a press conference to discuss an unpublished child abuse report. Specifically, church officials were to explain issues regarding the report’s methodology. These issues, at least according to Cologne Archbishop Reiner Maria Woelki, were the reason for withholding the document from the public in its current form.
Church representatives said they would show journalists a redacted version of the document. They also asked reporters to sign a pledge to keep the contents “secret,” including information on crimes, alleged perpetrators and implicated church officia
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