Freedom dies bit by bit – mostly because of the normativity of the (so-called) facts. ‘We need better tools to strengthen public safety’ is one of the most common arguments used to justify collecting even more data or expanding the powers of security services. From the perspective of the FDP Saar, the new constitutional protection law of Saarland fits exactly into this pattern. This is one of the reasons why Angelika Hießerich-Peter, chairwoman of the FDP Saar, agrees with the Saarland Journalists' Association in its criticism of the law.
The FDP Saar criticizes that the domestic intelligence service will be able to take action against journalists more easily in the future than before. Until now, journalists were protected from the use of technical surveillance tools for reasons of source protection, as long as they were not personally under investigation. This changes with the new law. Journalists were previously equated with lawyers or members of the state parliament. With the new regulations, the source protection for journalists is significantly relativized. The FDP Saar shares the view of the Saarland Journalists' Association: press freedom is a fundamental condition for democracy!
It is regrettable that this fundamental observation was not taken into account when passing the Constitutional Protection Act.
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