Global Journalist

Switzerland

Swiss journalists tried for violating CIA rules

Three Swiss journalists will be tried for violating defense security of the U.S. foreign intelligence service (CIA). Journalists Christopher Grenacher, Sandro Brotz and Beat Jost, who all work for the weekly SonntagsBlick, leaked documents containing supposed places of detention and interrogation methods of the CIA. The article published in SonntagsBlick confirmed the existence of U.S. detention centers in Europe. According to Reporters Without Borders, the information was based on a fax from the Egyptian foreign ministry that was intercepted by Swiss military intelligence and then leaked to the three journalists. The Swiss military court plans to try the reporters under military criminal code. If found guilty, the journalists could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. Brotz says that publishing the information was “journalistically and politically judicious.”
On the Web: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20956

Global Journalist is produced by the Missouri School of Journalism
Copyright © 2012