German president Christian Wulff has admitted on German television that it was a mistake to attempt to pressure leading tabloid Bild into killing a story. It emerged on Monday that Wulff had called Bild's editor Kai Diekmann and left a voicemail message in which he threatened "war" if Bild published a story about his personal finances.

As the Guardian reported, the message specifically made threats of "judicial consequences" and a "definitive breach" in relations with Axel Springer, Bild's publisher. Bild published the story.

Wulff then encountered widespread criticism from the around the German press, the Guardian reported, with the FT Deutschland calling on him to resign.

Wulff have rejected calls for his resignation and insists he was not trying to block the story, rather to delay it, and Bild has now asked the president to allow publication of a transcript "to clear up misunderstandings," the BBC reported.

The International Press Institute's Executive Board Chairman Carl-Eugen Eberle issued a statement calling for the German president to recognize that "Press freedom is in danger when those who hold high office attempt to wield influence over an editor-in-chief or publisher in order to suppress a critical article about themselves."

Source: Guardian, BBC, IPI