- Title: MEDIA-GERMANY/TREASON Germany opens treason probe against news website
- Date: 31st July 2015
- Summary: VARIOUS OF NETZPOLITIK.ORG WEBSITE
- Embargoed: 15th August 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAERUG2WMHTE4AO9N689AS4HI8Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Germany opened a treason investigation on Thursday (July 30) into a news website that a broadcaster said had reported on plans to increase state surveillance of online communications.
German media said it was the first time in more than 50 years that journalists had faced treason charges, and some denounced the move as an attack on the freedom of the press.
"The Federal Prosecutor has started an investigation on suspicion of treason into the articles ... published on the internet blog Netzpolitik.org," a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.
She added that the move followed a criminal complaint by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), over articles about the BfV that appeared on the website on February 25 and April 15. It said the articles had been based on leaked documents.
The public broadcaster ARD reported that Netzpolitik.org had published an article this year on how the BfV was seeking extra funding to increase its online surveillance, and another about plans to set up a special unit to monitor social media, both based on leaked confidential documents.
The website specialises in Internet politics, data protection, freedom of information and digital rights issues.
"We see this as an attempt by the security authorities under the federal government to intimidate by taking action against against disagreeable reports about the security service's surveillance system," Netzpolitik.org editor-in-chief Markus Beckedahl , targeted by the investigation along with his colleague journalist Andre Meister, said on Friday (July 31).
"It is completely surreal and we cannot really believe that we will possibly have to go to prison for our journalistic work. We never thought this would be possible. I continue to believe in the rule of law and don't believe that it will be possible," he said.
Speaking later on Friday, Germany's Justice Minister, Heiko Maas told journalists that he had lodged doubts about the case with the Federal Prosecutor.
"Today I told the Federal Prosecutor that I have doubts about whether the journalists intended to disadvantage Germany or advantage a foreign power with their publication. I also told him that I have doubts as to whether the published documents can be deemed as state secrets, the publication of which would threaten to severely disadvantage the external security of Germany," Maas said at his ministry in Berlin.
A spokesperson for the German Federation of Journalists (DJV), called the probe "an attempt to muzzle critical journalists".
In 1962, Defence Minister Franz Josef Strauss was forced to resign after treason charges were brought against the news weekly Der Spiegel for a cover story alleging that West Germany's armed forces were unprepared to defend it against the communist threat in the Cold War. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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