Germany Admits Its Foreign Intel Agency Spied on Journalists

The German government admitted today that its foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), had spied on German journalists, and Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered the agency to stop, according to published reports.

Ulrich Wilhelm, a government spokesman is reported to have said the surveillance appeared to be "isolated past cases" and in future "such operative measures against journalists ... are not to be repeated."

According to media reports, some of the country's most prominent investigative journalists were targeted by the intelligence agency, which reportedly focused its efforts on finding out what the reporters were working on and who their sources were. The BND admitted that it paid some journalists the equivalent of several hundred thousand dollars to write reports about their colleagues.

The program reportedly began in 1993 and continued until only a few months ago.