Kai Diekmann (born June 27, 1964 in Ravensburg) is a German journalist. From 1998 until 2000 he was editor of Welt am Sonntag (English: World on Sunday). Since January 2001 he is chief editor of Bild. He is also a member of the executive board of the Turkish daily Hürriyet.[1]
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Diekmann grew up in Bielefeld. After his Abitur (roughly equivalent to high school graduation) and mandatory military service, which he completed on the editorial staff of a military newspaper, he studied at the University of Münster. There he became a member of the Burschenschaft Franconia. He interrupted his studies in 1985 when he began his Volontariat (roughly: traineeship) at the Axel Springer AG through the Axel Springer Journalist School, from which he quickly began a career for the publisher, beginning as a correspondent in Bonn.[2]
From 1989-1991 he was the chief reporter for the Hubert Burda Media-published illustrated Bunte, a weekly featuring articles on celebrities, gossip, and lifestyle. After a short detour at the Ullstein-Verlag-published tabloid B.Z., in 1992 he transferred to Bild, a daily newspaper whose status as best-selling daily in Germany in large measure depends on sensationalist news stories. In 1992, he became editor of Welt am Sonntag, and in 2001 returned to Bild where he became editor. Since 2004, in addition to being editor, he is also the publisher of Bild as well as Bild am Sonntag. In March 2004, the first volume of the definitive memoirs of former Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl was published, edited by Diekmann.
As editor, Diekmann is responsible for the journalistic quality of the newspaper's work, which in the recent past has been the subject of several negative media reports. Recently, Bild has allegedly been in violation of basic journalistic principles more often than other German media. The claim that the Bild's offenses against the German Press Codex has increased since Diekmann took over is supported by the clear rise in the number of rebukes from the German Presserat (Press Council) during this time.
Diekmann is a member of the Atlantik-Brücke, an organization that aims to further relationships between Germany and especially the United States.[3]
Kai Diekmann sued the Berlin daily die tageszeitung, after, on May 8, 2002, the paper's satire page "Die Wahrheit" (The Truth) claimed that he had sought an operation to use parts of corpses to enlarge his allegedly extremely small penis.[4] Diekmann sued the tageszeitung for 30,000 Euro in damages for illegal violations of his privacy as well as libel and defamation of character.[5] A Berlin court ruled that there was indeed negligence on the part of the tageszeitung, but denied the monetary compensation demanded by Diekmann saying that, as editor of Bild, he "consciously seeks economic advantage from the violation of others' privacy" and therefore "is less heavily burdened by the violation of his own privacy," and furthermore that he should "assume that those standards that he lays on others are also of importance for himself."[6] An appeal against the ruling was given no chance of success by the higher court and both sides withdrew their appeals.[7]
From 1995 until 1997 Diekmann was married to Jonica Jahr, the daughter of Hamburg publisher John Jahr, Jr. On January 28, 2002, he married Bild columnist Katja Kessler, with former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl serving as his best man. Diekmann and Kessler have four children.
