Seized audio recordings: Die Zeit editor disputes court – Hamburg senator wants clarity
After recordings by a Die Zeit journalist linked to the Block trial in Hamburg were seized, media outlets and associations called it an attack on press freedom.
Symbolic image · Photo: Ajepbah / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
The seizure of audio recordings made by a journalist of the weekly Die Zeit in connection with the Block trial in Hamburg has drawn criticism. Media outlets and associations, including Der Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung, expressed solidarity and called it an attack on press freedom.
Editor-in-chief Giovanni di Lorenzo disputed the Hamburg regional court's account that a journalist from the paper's "Zeit Verbrechen" (true crime) desk had handed over the material voluntarily. Hamburg's media senator, Carsten Brosda of the SPD, called for the matter to be clarified legally.