German prosecutors drop treason probe against journalists

Germany’s chief federal prosecutor has dropped an investigation into two journalists at the Netzpolitik website suspected of revealing state secrets.

The uproar over Germany’s first treason investigation in over half a century, against Netzpolitik.org (Net politics) – which calls itself a digital civil rights blog – had led to a major political spat and the sacking of chief prosecutor Harald Range last week.

On Monday the federal prosecutor’s office said it was closing the case because it believed the leaked documents on which the website’s reports were based were not a “state secret”, and that other conditions for treason charges had not been met.

German officials have taken pains to stress their commitment to press freedom amid widespread criticism of the probe.

Mr Maas had previously expressed doubts over whether the publication of restricted documents belonging to the domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), had endangered Germany.

News of the investigation had sparked protests from journalists, activists and lawmakers who condemned the case as an attack on press freedom and an attempt to intimidate investigative reporters. Monday’s statement said that investigating the source or sources for violating secrecy will now be a matter for lower-ranking local prosecutors.

Beckedahl and Meister noted the investigation has merely been suspended, not formally dropped; the German television tagessachau.de website quoted them as demanding “the immediate cancellation of the investigation”.

The decision to scrap the investigation was made by Gerhard Altvater, the federal prosecutor general’s permanent deputy.

Write to Ruth. Bender at Ruth.