OSCE Media Freedom Chief Welcomes German Constitutional Court's Espionage Privacy Ruling

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2020) Representative on Freedom of the Media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Harlem Desir welcomed the ruling from Germany's highest court to extend privacy from state espionage to foreign nationals.

Earlier in the day, the German Federal Constitutional Court ordered the government to rewrite a 2016 law governing the country's foreign intelligence agency, known as the BND, to include privacy standards for foreigners abroad.

"I welcome today's #Germany Federal Constitutional Court ruling, following a complaint by @ReporterOG [Reporters Without Borders, Germany]: the foreign intelligence law must be modified to ensure that security service #BND complies with fundamental rights, including abroad and regarding foreign journalists," Desir's office wrote on Twitter.

The proceedings were launched in response to a complaint filed by Reporters Without Borders against the law as it allowed the BND to intercept and store communication of non-Germans abroad. The ruling did not prohibit such espionage outright, but ordered a rewrite of the law to increase justifications for required to embark on the activity.

The law was adopted after former US intelligence employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked classified documents revealing the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program, which had been collecting telephone, email and internet browsing records on nearly everyone in the United States, despite a law prohibiting spying on US citizens without a court order.