Electronic surveillance

German intel service spied on foreign media incl BBC, Reuters for years – Spiegel

The BND has spied upon more than 50 phone and fax numbers as well as e-mail addresses of journalists and editorial offices of various news media outlets around the world since 1999, Der Spiegel says, citing the documents of the German parliament’s commission investigating the US surveillance in Germany and the US cooperation with local intelligence.

According to the papers reportedly seen by Der Spiegel, the list of surveillance targets included particularly more than a dozen of contacts of BBC journalists in Afghanistan as well as the BBC central office in London and the office of the BBC World Service.

The list also featured the mobile phone numbers of Reuters journalists and offices in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria as well as a contact of the New York Times office in Afghanistan, Der Spiegel reports.