netzpolitik.org is a German language

news website An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...

on digital rights and digital culture. Among other topics, it covers

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

open source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...

, data protection and privacy and

net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

. The blog was founded in 2002 by Markus Beckedahl, who still leads the project today, supported by more than 30 other contributors.

Treason investigation 2015

20150801 Netzpolitik at protest in Berlin IMG 9196 by sebaso

In Spring 2015, netzpolitik.org leaked internal government documents which detailed the proposed surveillance expansion of social networks by the

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungss ...

, an intelligence agency, by producing two articles, first in February 2015 and then in April 2015. On July 31, 2015, netzpolitik.org announced:

Today, we received a letter from the Federal Attorney General of Germany confirming ongoing investigations against our reporters Markus Beckedahl, Andre Meister and an “unknown” source, suspecting us of
treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
according to the German Penal Code.

Up until that point, they were known to have been witnesses in the case, but this letter confirmed that they would be investigated as "joint principals". The last time such charges were brought against a journalist in Germany was in 1962 amid much uproar, when the editor-in-chief of ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' was accused of treason for publishing secret documents about the German defense forces, and spent 103 days in prison (see ''Spiegel'' affair). In the aftermath of the treason investigation, Federal Minister of Justice

Heiko Maas Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018–2021) and as the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protectio ...

forced Public Prosecutor General

Harald Range Harald Range (16 February 1948 – 2 May 2018) was a German jurist and was Attorney General of Germany. Early life and career After completing his studies at the University of Göttingen Range began his career with the judiciary of Lower Saxony, ...

into retirement for breach of public trust on 4 August 2015.

Political views

The bloggers describe themselves as a platform for digital freedoms, specifically fighting against

. netzpolitik.org is extensively reporting on the ongoing intelligence scandals, consequently live-covering the German parliamentary investigation committee on NSA surveillance. Besides this live-blogging, there is a broad evaluation and commenting on the insights won in the committee.Live-Blogging and commenting on the German parliamentary investigation committee since May 2014
/ref> The bloggers have vigorously criticized surveillance laws and practices for many years.

References

External links

netzpolitik.org
*
„Suspicion of Treason“: Federal Attorney General Announces Investigation Against Us In Addition To Our Sources
2015-7-30 ** {{Cite web, title=Classified Department: We Unveil the New Unit of the German Domestic Secret Service to Extend Internet Surveillance {{! netzpolitik.org , url=https://netzpolitik.org/2015/secret-department-we-present-the-new-german-domestic-secret-service-unit-to-extend-internet-surveillance/ , date=2015-04-17 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417004337/https://netzpolitik.org/2015/secret-department-we-present-the-new-german-domestic-secret-service-unit-to-extend-internet-surveillance/ , archivedate=April 17, 2015

Press review: Treason Investigation 2015

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