Hadmut Danisch says:
So, just to clear this up, if you wanted to start a newspaper today, could you simply print out a few hundred copies of whatever you wanted to say and go out and sell it (or give it away) without any interaction with the government? (I don't know the answer for Germany; I'm genuinely curious. I hope the answer is "yes".)
Of course not without *any* interaction. You have to pay taxes if you earn money, and you are not allowed to do it anonymous. Everything must contain an address of someone responsible.
In the U.S., it is perfectly lawful for me to print a newspaper ANONYMOUSLY, and sell it on streetcorners. Indeed, I may print anything I wish anonymously, be it a book, a magazine, or a newspaper.
But no one forbids to do produce a newspaper. Every school has a 'schoolpaper' (don't know how to translate well). Everyone who thinks he has to tell anything important prints anything on lots of paper at this University, in most cases political (often very left-wing) themes.
Do you not have to register your newspaper?
Our 'Grundgesetz', the constitution (like "Bill of rights") says that there is no censorship. Everyone can tell his opinion in "Word, letter and image":
Unless the words happen to be about Naziism, I take it, or about any other ideology considered "dangerous". Perry