DThe federal government is “in exchange” with the information service provider juris about the editorial offer “Libra – the legal briefing” launched last year and the question of whether it satisfies the requirement of being remote from the state. This was communicated to the CDU member of the Bundestag, Martin Plum. In his written request, Plum referred to the reporting in the FAZ of December 20, 2022. The federal government holds the majority of the shares in juris GmbH, Saarland is a co-owner.
Plum finds the government’s answer “evasive, clichéd and, overall, half-hearted,” as he tells the FAZ: “Given the importance of freedom of the press, a mere exchange on this question seems to me to be insufficient.”
Libra is in competition with private offers (including the FAZ offer “Objection”). Plum is surprised that the editorial offer was established under the liberal Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann, who otherwise preaches freedom from the state and freedom. Plum is also not satisfied with the explanations given by juris Managing Director Samuel van Oostrom about the huge salary increases. According to the federal government, the salary is assessed as appropriate “in relation to the salaries of managing directors of comparable companies and taking into account the tasks and performance of the managing director and the situation of the company”. Van Oostrom most recently received EUR 333,634.04 for his work at juris.
The “taz” wrote: “That’s almost Tom Buhrow and more than the basic salary of the Chancellor, which is a whopping 25,000 euros a month.” Van Oostrom also holds management positions at other companies.
CDU politician Plum is unable to understand how this salary level came about and points out that there is a second managing director in Johannes Weichert. According to the federal participation report, he received EUR 148,833.78 and pension expenses of EUR 31,383.12. For Plum, who worked as a judge for ten years, juris fulfills an important task in the development of case law and legal literature. However, there are also private offers on the market with a comparable standard and range of services.
