Oliver Janich

Last updated

Oliver Janich
Personal details
Born (1969-01-03) 3 January 1969 (age 55)
Munich, Germany
Political party Party of Reason (2009–2013)
Profession
  • Journalist
  • Author
Website Personal website (in German)

Oliver Janich (born 3 January 1969) is a German far-right conspiracy theorist, former journalist, author and banned YouTuber. [1] He is the founder and former president of the libertarian, minor party Partei der Vernunft (Party of Reason). [2]

Contents

Investigations and conspiracy theories

Janich worked as an editor for the German magazine Focus Money where he was effectively let go in 2010 for advertising his own political party the Party of Reason in the magazine. [3]

Investigations against Janich for alleged stock market manipulation

Together with two friends from the time he studied economics, Janich was part of a network of stock traders and stock market journalists ("Bosler-Clique") who systemically raised the share prices of rather unknown listed companies, whose shares had previously been bought by people in their network, by promoting the purchase of the companies shares. In September 2010, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Munich ordered a search of the offices and apartments of approximately 30 suspects including Janich. The ringleaders of the conspiracy, of whom Janich was not one according to findings from the trial, were convicted in 2012. Several stock market journalists had reduced their sentences by admitting their crimes and only received suspended sentences at most. [4] [5] [6]

He currently resides in the Philippines. [7] In August 2022, he was arrested by the Philippine authorities at a resort in Romblon. [8] [9]

Conspiracy theories

As a financial journalist, Janich represented conspiracy theories about 9/11 in several of his articles [10] and these theories are present in his books as well. [11] Furthermore, he spread conspiracy theories about alleged election fraud during the 2018 Bavarian state election without providing any evidence. [11]

Janich published a YouTube video against the appointment of Sinan Selen as Vice President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, claiming that Selen had gotten the job "at the request of the Turkish government". [12] According to German magazine Spiegel Online, his YouTube videos contain "partly racist statements and employ anti-Semitic conspiracy theories". [13]

Janich is considered a disseminator of the QAnon conspiracy theories. [14]

Party of Reason

Janich founded the Party of Reason after the proposal to found a party, which he made in a Focus Money column, received positive feedback from his readers. [15]

On 17 April 2013, Janich resigned as chairman of the party. [16]

Political views

Janich supported the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) ahead of the 2017 German federal election. [17] In 2018 he compared a documentary of the children's TV-channel KiKa with the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels. [18] Also in 2018, Janich distributed a video that allegedly showed journalists staging images of refugees in a maritime emergency. Journalist Jacques Pezet later exposed the video as fake. [19] After the 2018 Bavarian state election, the German television channel Bayerische Rundfunk reported on its website that Janich was distributing videos that were alleging fraud during the election without providing any proof whatsoever. [11]

In June 2020, the German TV-program Frontal , showed in a feature on conspiracy theorists, how Janich was talking about tribunals for politicians and journalists, saying that "Many of the people in power today actually belong hanged". [20]

Works

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References

  1. ↑ "Qanon – der Aufstieg einer gefährlichen Verschwörungstheorie". 11 April 2020.
  2. ↑ Partei der Vernunft gegründet Archived 29 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine (in German), 4 June 2009.
  3. ↑ Eder, Sebastian (7 December 2016). "Das Internet nach Freiburg: Der Hass kennt keine Grenzen". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN   0174-4909 . Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  4. ↑ Deckstein, Dinah; Grill, Markus; Pauly, Christoph (15 November 2010). "AFFÄREN : "Bullshit mit Bildchen" – Der Spiegel 46/2010". www.spiegel.de. Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  5. ↑ Deckstein, Dinah; Neumann, Conny (20 March 2012). "Urteil im Insider-Prozess um SdK-Affäre um Straub und Bosler – Der Spiegel – Wirtschaft". www.spiegel.de (in German). Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  6. ↑ Reimann, Annina (20 March 2012). "Die Urteile helfen Anlegern wenig". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  7. ↑ Borgers, Michael (18 March 2020). "Xavier Naidoo – Wechselspiel mit rechten Medien". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  8. ↑ x rix, Matt (17 August 2022). "Verschwörungsideologe Janich festgenommen". www.tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  9. ↑ x rix, Matt (17 August 2022). "Oliver Janich auf den Philippinen festgenommen". www.spiegel.de (in German). Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  10. ↑ Afanasjew, Nik (4 September 2011). "9/11 – Alles Lüge?". www.tagesspiegel.de (in German). Archived from the original on 22 May 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 Oswald, Bernd (19 October 2018). "Was ist dran an Gerüchten zu angeblichem Wahlbetrug?". Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  12. ↑ Steinke, Ronen; Mascolo, Georg (6 December 2018). "Verfassungsschutz – Sinan Selen schlägt Hass entgegen". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  13. ↑ Kalisch, Murial; Stotz, Patrick (21 May 2020). "Wer liest das eigentlich? Die geläufigsten Corona-Verschwörungstheorien und die Akteure dahinter – Der Spiegel – Netzwelt". www.spiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  14. ↑ Huesmann, Felix (11 April 2020). ""QAnon" – der Aufstieg einer gefährlichen Verschwörungstheorie". www.rnd.de (in German). Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  15. ↑ Janich, Oliver (13 November 2013). "Börsenkommentar – Neue Partei". FOCUS Online (in German). Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "Der Bundesvorsitzende der Partei der Vernunft tritt zurück" (in German). 18 April 2013. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  17. ↑ "Warum Sie die Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) wählen sollten". Youtube. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  18. ↑ Klingenmaier, Thomas (11 January 2018). "Streit um Kinderkanal-Beitrag geht weiter: Stoff für die Hetzer und Hasser". stuttgarter-zeitung.de (in German). Archived from the original on 19 March 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  19. ↑ Frerichmann, Nora (17 August 2018). "Das Altpapier am 17. August 2018: Verteidigt oder verrannt? | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de (in German). Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  20. ↑ "Verschwörungstheorie: Warum ist QAnon so gefährlich?". www.zdf.de (in German). 18 June 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
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