The Guardian reports that Range said he was pausing inquiries “for the good of press and media freedom” and that 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”. Another document, published in April, presented details of a new unit being set up to broaden the BfV’s capacity to eavesdrop on social media.
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Deutsche Welle reports the president of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said that “to continue the fight against extremism and terrorism…it was necessary to guard against the publication of documents classified as confidential or secret”.
Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reports Range saying: “Until the expert opinion comes in, the investigations will be stopped”.
The documents published by Netzpolitik shed light on Germany’s secret mass surveillance plans.
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”.
Over the past few years Germany has been at the forefront of the privacy debate internationally, asserting the need to protect privacy and condemning government surveillance. Now, while an investigation has been opened, criminal charges against Beckedahl and Meister have not been presented. Prosecutors had earlier also dropped an investigation into the unknown person who leaked the information to the two journalists. Marching under an umbrella banner “for fundamental rights and freedom of the press” individual placards carried such messages as “RIP democracy” and the snappy “Treason?” Probably the most high-profile case occurred in 1962, when an investigation towards the weekly journal Der Spiegel prompted road demonstrations and the resignation of 5 Cupboard members in protest.
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Germany’s first treason investigation against a media organisation in half a century caused shock, particularly over its target. The paper’s offices were raided by police and editors arrested, sparking street protests in their support. A court later ruled in its favour and the defence minister stepped down, in what was seen as a victory for democracy and cemented its reputation for investigative journalism. Meanwhile, German lawyers called for the abolition of the offence “journalistic treason”.
