German President Christian Wulff personally called the editor-in-chief of Bild last month and threatened legal action if it published a story on a private home loan he received at cheap interest rates.

Bild confirmed media reports on Monday that the head of state had left a message on its chief editor Kai Diekmann's voicemail, in which he threatened the paper with legal action and expressed outrage about its plans to publish details of a private home loan that has prompted widespread criticism.

Two respected German newspapers - the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung – had reported Sunday and Monday respectively that President Christian Wulff threatened to break completely with Bild if it went ahead and published information on Wulff's low-interest personal loan.

Intervention

Wulff said Bild was going too far and had "crossed a red line."

Bild confirmed that Wulff phoned Diekmann personally on December 12 while on an official tour of the Persian Gulf to complain about what he called the "unbelievable story" about his 500,000-euro ($650,000) loan from a southern German bank. After not reaching Dieckmann, he left a voice message.

Wulff finally reached the Bild editor-in-chief later, expressing regret over the tone and content of his earlier phone call.

Conflict of interest?

Wulff , whose office said Monday he greatly values media freedom and doesn't comment on private or telephone conversations, has been the subject of a barrage of criticism for arranging his low-interest loan with the Baden-Württemberg-based BW Bank.

When he was still the state premier of Lower Saxony, Wulff borrowed the money from the wife of a business friend, Egon Geerkens, which he later exchanged for the low-interest bank loan.

The state prosecutor's office in Hanover has received about 20 criminal complaints from private citizens concerning the loan affair, but has said it was not going to pursue the case further because there was no evidence that a criminal offense was committed.

Author: Dagmar Breitenbach, Gregg Benzow (dpa, dapd, Reuters, AFP)
Editor: Nicole Goebel