Germany Refuses to Comment on Reports of Espionage on Foreign Journalists

German government’s spokesman Steffen Seibert refused to comment during a press conference on reports suggesting that German special services were spying on foreign journalists.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — On February 24, German weekly newspaper Der Spiegel reported that since 1999 the BND has monitored at least 50 telephone numbers, e-mails and faxes of international journalists, allegedly including those of the New York Times and Reuters news agency.

Reporters Without Borders considered the action of the BND as "a monstrous attack on press freedom" and a violation of the country's constitution.

"The information on the operative work of the [German Intelligence Service] BND is not discussed here. … The BND acts in accordance with the law," Seibert told reporters, adding that the actions of the BND are only discussed within respective parliamentary committees.

In April 2015, an espionage scandal gripped Germany as local media uncovered that the BND had provided technical assistance to the US National Security Agency (NSA) in spying on European targets, including top political figures and corporations. The BND is believed to have spied on some 800,000 IP addresses, phone numbers and email addresses at the request of US intelligence.

Later, a series of documents also revealed that BND was actively involved in espionage against European citizens and politicians not only at the request of NSA, but also on its own initiative.