German media is reporting that it is the first time in more than 50 years that journalists have been investigated for treason, while head of the German press association (DJV) Michael Konken labelled the probe “an unacceptable attempt to muzzle two critical journalists”.
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The blog had in February and April published documents on plans to step up Internet surveillance by Germany’s Federal Service for the Protection of the Constitution, whose chief Hans-Georg Maassen filed a criminal complaint.
Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Range said he would await the results of an internal investigation into whether the journalists from the news platform netzpolitik.org had quoted from a classified intelligence report before deciding how to proceed.
Much of the German media called the decision an attack on the freedom of the press.
Range – whose office was not immediately available for comment to AFP – said the case was suspended while experts determine whether the documents indeed constitute “state secrets”.
Writers of Netzpolitik (Net politics), which focuses on “digital civil rights” and was in 2014 awarded Germany’s Grimme Online Award, were defiant, stating that “we will not be intimidated”.
Britta Pedersen-/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images Markus Beckedahl, founder of Netzpolitik.org, in his office in Berlin on 10 October., 2014.
It comes amid continued debate over sweeping online surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) revealed by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and the degree of German cooperation.
German authorities on Thursday opened an investigation into the website’s bloggers, Markus Beckedahl and Andre Meister, as well as an unidentified third party, accusing them of treason, according to news reports.
In a scathing attack, the leading Green MP Renate Künast, who is also chair of the Bundestag’s legal affairs committee, called the investigation a “humiliation to the rule of law”.
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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.
