Plugging Leaks: Merkel's War on Germany's Press and Parliament

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/berlin-goes-after-journalists-to-protect-state-secrets-a-1047265.html



In recent months, Germany's government and intelligence agencies have gone after journalists and parliamentarians in an effort to keep classified information secret. Now, their efforts have resulted in a bona fide scandal for Berlin.

Plugging Leaks: Merkel's War on Germany's Press and Parliament
By SPIEGEL Staff
August 07, 2015 – 08:15 PM

When former German Federal Prosecutor Harald Range greeted SPIEGEL journalists for an interview at the end of July, he seemed combative. The 67-year-old recalled his oath of office as a young public prosecutor in the university town of Göttingen, to investigate "independent of a person's standing."

He also said he refused to allow his position to be influenced by politics in any way, adding that he "had so far" not been given any orders by the government. "I am free in my decisions," he said. But did he already suspect at that point that an investigation into two journalists would soon rock both his office and the government in Berlin?

Two weeks after the interview, Range stood in front of his admiring staff in Karlsruhe, where the federal prosecutor's office is headquartered. It was the day after he had challenged the federal government, which he accused of an "intolerable intervention" into his work. And it was a few hours after he had been terminated. He said it was more important to him to be able to look in the mirror than in a newspaper. "I did it for myself and I did it for the agency," he said. His staff showered him with applause.

The mood in Berlin was quite a bit different. In an almost unprecedented show of unity, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her cabinet distanced themselves from Range. They acted as though they had nothing at all to do with the investigation that cost Range his job -- an investigation that marked the first time the state had probed journalists for treason since the government of West Germany sought to prosecute DER SPIEGEL journalists 53 years ago.