“We are dismayed to see that Germany’s politicians want to allow our intelligence agency to spy on foreign journalists… Until now, Germany’s intelligence laws have spared journalists but the BND bill no longer includes any provision exempting them from surveillance. The BND has journalists from non-European Union member countries in its sights. The German authorities seem to regard media freedom as an exclusively German right and to be unconcerned about what happens to this freedom beyond their borders,” Christian Mihr, the executive director of RSF’s Berlin bureau, was quoted as saying in the organization’s statement.
“Instead of depriving foreign journalists of the protection enjoyed by their German colleagues, the government should have addressed the shortcomings and omissions in Germany’s legislation,” the organization urged in the statement.
RSF points out that the so-called G10 law that protects freedom of media applies only to official journalists and leaves bloggers without protection.
