Germany

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has put an end to the groundless mass surveillance of global internet traffic by the foreign intelligence service. The ruling, the most far-reaching in this field in the past 20 years, sends an important signal for the protection of press freedom in the digital age.

Privacy International reveals how popular websites about depression in France, Germany and the UK share user data with advertisers, data brokers and large tech companies, while some depression test websites leak answers and test results with third parties.

Germany has played a strong role in defending journalists over the years and should continue to do so when it takes its non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in 2019.

The “Newscomer” project’s mentorship scheme partners a refugee or foreign journalist with a local journalist in Germany, enabling them to collaborate on stories.

RSF reiterates its call for an urgent overhaul of Interpol because of the growing tendency for it to be exploited by repressive governments such as Turkey’s.

Germany’s parliament has put its weight behind Reporters Without Borders’ initiative for the creation of a United Nations Special Representative for the Safety of Journalists, the first parliament worldwide to do so.

An alliance of German civil rights organisations, journalists and bloggers lodges an appeal against a new law that criminalises handling leaked data.

An alliance of German civil rights organisations, journalists and bloggers lodges an appeal against a new law that criminalises handling leaked data.

“France and Germany, it’s time to assert your values”, stresses Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab, currently on trial for criticising the Saudi bombing of Yemen and exposing torture in Bahrain’s prisons.

Germany’s spy agency could soon be indiscriminately spying on both non-EU citizens and newsrooms across the world.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in granting a request by the Turkish government, underscored that Germany viewed the deteriorating situation of press freedom in Turkey with “great concern”.

“German authorities should have been clear from the start that Ahmed Mansour risks serious violations of his human rights if he is sent to Egypt,” said Wenzel Michalski, Germany director of Human Rights Watch.

Journalists’ organisations in Germany are opposing the government’s proposal to allow telecommunication companies, social networking sites and online messaging services to hand over private data to the authorities for national security purposes.

Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel should urge president Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to free leading human rights defenders, journalists, and other government critics jailed unjustly in Azerbaijan, Human Rights Watch says. Merkel is scheduled to meet Aliyev in Berlin on 21 January 2015.

Right-wing extremists are suspected in the recent arson attack on a German photojournalist’s car in Berlin. It was the second such attack on the journalist in 2014, who had also been the target of neo-Nazi threats.

By failing to investigate the extent of the Trovicor company’s wrongdoing, the OECD is turning a blind eye to how German made surveillance technology is being used by the Bahraini government to target and suppress pro-democracy voices.