Today, the German Federal Constitutional Court has declared the monitoring of worldwide Internet traffic by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) to be unconstitutional. The ruling says that the BND is bound by the fundamental rights of the Basic Law when conducting telecommunications surveillance of foreigners in other countries, and it violates the fundamental right to privacy of telecommunications (Art. 10(1) of the Basic Law, Grundgesetz – GG) and the freedom of the press (Art. 5). Back in 2016 the Bundestag  passed a law that allowed the Federal Intelligence Service to spy on foreign journalists. As this destroys the trust between journalists…

A ZDF camera crew were attacked after filming a demonstration against the corona rules for satirical news programme the heute-show (Today Show) on Friday 1 May. The team were on the way back to their vehicles when the incident took place. The EFJ joined its German affiliates the German Association of Journalists (DJV) and the German Union of Journalists (dju in ver.di) in condemning the attack. Five of the seven members required hospital treatment and have since been discharged to recover from home. The police initially arrested six suspects, who were released from custody. Some 15 persons are suspected of…

Sadness and dismay prevail in the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today after the sudden death of the chair of the EFJ’s Labour Expert Group, Rainer Reichert, in Brussels. “For decades, he has rendered outstanding services to journalism in both Germany and Europe,” said EFJ President, Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, paying tribute to the deceased. “Rainer was so committed to fighting for better working conditions of journalists throughout Europe. With his legal expertise and knowledge of many languages, he always volunteered to help improve the interests of journalists, be it in the Balkans, in Italy or anywhere in Europe. His death…

German media’s legal departments see an increase of lawyer’s attempts to prevent journalists from reporting. That was found out by the new study “If you write that, I will sue you! Preventive strategies of lawyers against media”, published on 08 August. The research filed by the German Otto Brenner Foundation in cooperation with the “Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte” determined that legal departments receive an average of three preventive warnings per month. The strategy: “press law information letters” Knowing that they don’t have a legal right to prevent a media from publishing an article concerning their clients, lawyers have the common practice…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its German members “Deutscher Journalisten Verband” (DJV) and “Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union in ver.di” expressed its solidarity with the German journalist Georg Restle, who became the target of online harassment culminating in death threat received by letter. The journalist had critically commented on the right wing party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD). Following the letter coming from “the right wing extremist scene”, his employer, the public service broadcaster “Westdeutscher Rundfunk” (WDR) has now filed a criminal complaint. On 11 July, Restle had described the AfD as the “parliamentary arm of a right-wing extremist movement”…

When it comes to crediting photojournalists below their pictures, big german newspapers perform worse than smaller ones. That’s the result of the 2019 ranking by the EFJ German affiliate, Deutscher Journalisten Verband (DJV). The ranking is part of a campaign called “Photographers do have names” with the main goal to raise awareness about photojournalists who are often deprived of their right. DJV investigated 87 nationwide selected newspapers in a random sample and found out that smaller newsrooms performed far better in quoting photographers than bigger ones. This year, the three Bavarian Newspapers Fränkische Landeszeitung, Main Post and Nürnberger Nachrichten were…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) shares the outrage of its German affiliates Deutscher Journalisten Verband (DJV) and Deutsche Jounalisten Union (DJU) in ver.di about a new draft law by the German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) which  would remove protections prohibiting the country’s domestic and foreign intelligence services from hacking journalists’ devices during terrorism investigations. Under the current German law, journalists – along with priests, lawyers, doctors, and Members of Parliament – are granted special protection to limit their surveillance by intelligence agencies. According to the German newspaper Die Zeit, the new legislation would remove some of the protections…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliates in Germany, the dju in ver.di and the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) in condemning attacks against several media houses including die Tageszeitung (TAZ), Frankfurter Rundschau, the ARD Hauptstadt Büro by groups of the Identitäre Bewegung (IB, Identitarian Movement) this morning. A journalist was physically attacked in front of the media building of the TAZ in Berlin while trying to prevent a group of men and women of the Identitäre Bewegung (IB) to attach posters against left wing violence at the wall of the media house. The Identical movement (IB) is a extreme…

“What happened in Chemnitz this weekend including violent acts against media workers concerns us all,” said EFJ President Mogens Blicher Bjerregard. “It is ever more urgent in Germany and elsewhere in Europe that democratic institutions and the police protect journalists against right-wing extremists. We pledge for intense training for the police and dialogue between journalists and police to better understand each-others’ role.” Almost 10,000 people are estimated to have taken part in protests in Chemnitz on Saturday 1 September – led by members of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the anti-Islam Pegida movement and a large group of Hooligans– as…

Members of a TV crew working for German public broadcaster ZDF´s investigative political magazine programme Frontal21 were detained by police during 45 minutes, on 16 August, after a complaint by a participant at a Pegida (far-right) demonstration in Dresden. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its German affiliates, DJV and dju in ver.di, in condemning the Saxon police action. Footage shot by the camera team, which included broadcast journalists Ulrich Stoll and Arndt Ginzel, shows a procession of demonstrators including one man shouting “Lügenpresse!” (“lying press”) while looking and pointing at the camera team. The footage also shows the…

The European Federation of Journalists’ (EFJ) supports its German affiliates, the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) and the dju in ver.di, in their statement of support for the constitutional complaint of foreign journalists against the Federal Intelligence Service (BND-G) law on “overseas surveillance” of telecommunications operations. The complaint by foreign journalists was filed in December, and presented publicly on 30 January 2018 in Berlin. It criticises the insufficient protection of fundamental rights of foreign journalists from surveillance measures. Among the plaintiffs are renowned investigative journalists, including the winner of this year’s Alternative Nobel Prize Khadija Ismayilova (Azerbaijan), Blaž Zgaga (Slovenia) and Richard…

The German journalists’ association and affiliate of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV), has called on the members of the German Bundestag to abolish the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) as soon as possible. DJV federal chairman, Frank Uberall, said that “the censorship of the satirical magazine Titanic, by Twitter, has confirmed our fears that we have already put forward in the legislative process. The NetzDG pushes the power over the fundamental right of freedom of the press and freedom of private companies such as Twitter and Facebook. There is no sound legal consideration of the deletion of…

At least 32 journalists have been deprived of their press accreditations by the German government during the G20 protests in Hamburg held on 7 July. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) join their German affiliates DJV and dju in ver.di in condemning the attacks against the press. Nine journalists have had their accreditations revoked with an additional 23 placed on a list detailing them as a security concern. Those listed were not present at the G20 Press Center, according to EFJ affiliates. Government spokesperson Steffen Seibert confirmed the removal of the accreditations but didn’t provide any justification for…

The German parliament voted last Friday on 30 June a law on social media forcing online platforms like Facebook and Twitter to remove illegal hate speech posted by users. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) expressed concerns regarding the adoption of the law warning that the law would lead to widespread online censorship and limit media freedom. The law on “respect of the law by social network” has raised criticism regarding the excessive and hardly controllable infringement to freedom of speech. In April, the EFJ together with its German members (DJV and dju in ver.di) protested against the draft law and…

The German affiliates of the European Federation of Journalists, the Deutscher Journalisten-verband (DJV) and Dju in ver.di criticized the adoption of the Network Enforcement Law („Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz”) by the German Federal Cabinet on April 5, 2017, supposed to be adopted by the German Bundestag in the summer. Dju in ver.di issued a statement on April 5: “Even if we strongly reject the use of fake news and hate speech in social networks, in case of doubt, the deletion of such content is not the right response,” said Cornelia Haß, national director of dju in ver.di. “Freedom of expression and diversity of opinions are fundamental to our…