Arne Semsrott

Arne Semsrott (born 1988) is a German journalist and activist. He is the director of the freedom of information NGO FragDenStaat and founder of the political initiative Freiheitsfonds that campaigns for decriminalisation of fare-dodging.

Arne Semsrott 2019

Career

Semsrott attended the Catholic high school Sophie Barat Schule in Hamburg. In school, he founded the satirical school newspaper Sophie's Underworld (German: Sophies Unterwelt) together with his older brother, Nico Semsrott at the Hamburg Sophie-Barat-Schule. Its sale was banned on the school grounds by the school's headmistress, though it was continued to be sold from a portable toilet.[1][2] Semsrott has been working as a freelance journalist since 2008. Between 2010 and 2015, he studied political science in Berlin and Istanbul. Since 2014, he has been director of the freedom of information initiativ FragDenStaat at the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, for which he received the Otto Brenner Award in both 2015 and 2016. He is co-initiator of the OpenSCHUFA initiative, which was nominated for the Grimme Online Award, and has been on the board of lobby watchdog LobbyControl since October 2018. In 2021, Semsrott founded the Freiheitsfonds initiative.[3][4] The organisation raises funds to free prisoners who have been incarcerated under the substitute imprisonment law, which allows judges to impose custodial sentences for unpaid public transport fares.[5] It also advocates decriminalising the act of riding on public transport without a ticket, which was made an offence by the Nazi party in 1935.[6][7] As of September 2023, Semsrott and Freiheitsfonds had raised more than €800,000 and allowed 850 people to leave prison early.[8]

References
  1. Hanselmann, Matthias. "Nico und Arne Semsrott – Mal lustig, mal ernst – aber immer politisch" [Nico and Arne Semsrott: Sometimes funny, sometimes serious – but always political]. Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  2. Benedikt Mandl (1 July 2005). "Pressekrieg um "Sophies Unterwelt"". Spiegel-Online (in German). Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  3. Hanss, Alina (15 March 2022). "Nicht mehr in den Knast fürs Fahren ohne Ticket" [No more going to jail for riding without a ticket]. fr.de (in German). Frankfurter Rundschau. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023.
  4. Hinrichs, Benjamin (1 March 2022). "Wir haben dem Staat schon knapp 2,9 Millionen gespart" [We have already saved the state almost 2.9 million]. zeit.de (in German). Die Zeit. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  5. Kind, Martina (2 September 2023). "Auch aus dem Saarland: Initiative Freiheitsfonds kauft Schwarzfahrer frei" [Also from Saarland: Freedom Fund initiative buys fare dodgers' freedom]. sr.de (in German). Saarländischer Rundfunk. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023.
  6. Joswig, Gareth (16 December 2021). "Freiheitsfonds kauft Schwarzfahrer frei: Fahrschein aus dem Gefängnis" [Freedom Fund buys fare dodgers' freedom: Ticket out of prison]. taz.de (in German). Die Tageszeitung. Archived from the original on 30 April 2023.
  7. Bähr, Sebastian (6 December 2021). "Ersatzfreiheitsstrafe: Initiative kauft Berliner Häftlinge frei" [Substitute imprisonment: Initiative buys Berlin prisoners' freedom]. nd-aktuell.de (in German). Neues Deutschland. Archived from the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  8. "The German group buying ticket dodgers out of prison". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 28 September 2023. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
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