Investigations against Netzpolitik.org closed
The acting German Attorney General, Gerhard Altvater, has closed the controversial investigation against the bloggers of Netzpolitik.org on suspicion of treason. Netzpolitik.org boss Markus Beckedahl is now calling for further clarification.
Like the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Public Prosecutor General assumes that the documents published by Netzpolitik.org are not state secrets, the highest prosecuting authority announced in Karlsruhe on Monday. The founder of the blog, Markus Beckedahl, called the move overdue. He explained that dropping the case was not enough. He wanted to know whether the bloggers had been victims of surveillance measures during the almost three-month investigation. "And we want clarity about who knew what and when in the federal government." He called the investigations against the blog a legal miscalculation. What is needed is clarification as to why the Federal Public Prosecutor General acted in this way and who exerted pressure. The search for the bloggers' informants continues. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, there is still suspicion of a violation of official secrecy against unknown persons with professional secrets. The proceedings will be handed over to the responsible public prosecutor's office.
Stumbling block for the Attorney General
The affair surrounding the investigations led to the dismissal of Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range last week following a dispute with Justice Minister Heiko Maas. The bloggers had published confidential documents from the domestic intelligence service on the internet. The documents concerned plans to increase surveillance of the internet. Range had initiated an investigation into treason against two bloggers from Netzpolitik.org following information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This was widely criticized in the media and politics as an attack on the freedom of the press. The German government distanced itself from the investigation. The scandal arose over an expert opinion commissioned by Range on the question of how the published documents should be assessed. Range accused Maas of exerting influence and intolerably interfering with the independence of the judiciary.
Donations for bloggers
The affair has made the Netzpolitik.org portal known throughout Germany. According to Beckedahl, the editorial team received numerous donations as a result. More than thirty authors around Beckedahl regularly write on Netzpolitik.org "about political, social, technical and cultural issues on the way to a digital society". The operators see their blog as a "platform for digital freedom rights". Classic topics include data retention, online surveillance, digital civil rights and data protection. (SDA)
