Berlin Accuses Investigative Blogger of Treason for Disclosing Surveillance

The editor-in-chief of the German investigative blog netzpolitik.org considers the criminal prosecution against him for revealing the monitoring activities of the country's secret services to be an attempt to intimidate independent journalism, media reported Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the newspaper Focus, the German attorney general accused Markus Beckedahl, the blog's editor-in-chief, of treason, in a letter published on Thursday, for disclosing plans by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to analyze social network activity.

"For me this is very clearly intimidation," Beckedahl said in an interview with Germany's Tagesschau24 channel, describing the criminal case as "the absurd."

Beckedahl said the charge of treason was a threat to all journalists and promised to continue disclosing documents about the secret services' monitoring activities.

According to Focus, the blog seeks to clarify how the secret services turned the Internet into "a global total surveillance machine."

The German Chancellery has repeatedly warned that those found to have been involved in publishing secret documents pertaining to the surveillance activities of the secret services, including the US National Security Agency, would face criminal prosecution.

„Suspicion of Treason“: Federal Attorney General Announces Investigation Against Us In Addition To Our Sources. https://t.co/3ALnvQPs8e

— netzpolitik (@netzpolitik) 30 июля 2015