Ginzel became well known for his research into the so-called "Saxon Swamp" corruption scandal, which he reported in Spiegel and Zeit Online. He was taken to court for this case with a complaint of defamation and slander. He lost the case in the original court but at the second instance he was cleared. In 2015 he was imprisoned by pro-Russian rebels whilst researching in East Ukraine. He won the Bavarian TV Prize for the reportage "Shadow play - Putin's undeclared war against the West", which he made together with Markus Weller and he won a nomination for Best Documentary at the German TV Awards 2017 for his reportage "Putin's secret network - how Russia is splitting the West".

Arndt Ginzel and Gerald Gerber were subjected to lengthy police checks during the course of a Pegida demonstration in Dresden. It was provoked by a demonstrator who apparently did not want his face to be photographed and it hampered their reporting work for some considerable time. This led to wide-ranging discussions about press freedom and the role of the police in that conflicted zone that lies between security measures, protecting the freedom of assembly for demonstrators and making sure that journalists can do their jobs unhindered.

Gerber was a founder member of Meissen TV in 1996 and a member of its Executive Board until 2002. Since 2002, he is working as a freelance camera operator with his company Gerald Gerber TV - Gerber Film- und Fernsehproduktion. Gerber worked as a camera operator on many foreign assignments for ARD and ZDF in the East Ukraine conflict. In November 2016 he was arrested by Syrian security forces whilst filming on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Arndt Ginzel and Gerald Gerber were subjected to lengthy police checks during the course of a Pegida demonstration in Dresden. It was provoked by a demonstrator who apparently did not want his face to be photographed and it hampered their reporting work for some considerable time. This led to wide-ranging discussions about press freedom and the role of the police in that conflicted zone that lies between security measures, protecting the freedom of assembly for demonstrators and making sure that journalists can do their jobs unhindered.

Tomasz Piątek was born in 1974 in Poland and studied linguistics in Milan. Between 1995 and 2013 he worked as a journalist for the Polish news magazine Polityka, the Italian daily La Stampa and as an expert in psycholinguistics. Since 2013 Piątek is the columnist of the second largest Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

Beside his journalistic work, he is also known as an author of several novels, thrillers and fantasy books. With his nonfiction book Macierewicz i jego tajemnice (Macierewicz and his secrets) published in 2017, he got targeted by state organs in Poland: as in twelve columns published in the Gazeta Wyborcza, Piątek describes the connections of Antoni Macierewicz, Polish Minister of Defence, to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian intelligence service and criminal groups in Russia. On the one hand, these connections are piquant, since Macierewicz always appears as a determined opponent of Putin in the Polish public. On the other hand, Piątek accuses the minister of being involved in illegal arms and money transactions. Instead of filing a complaint against the journalist or initiating civil-law investigations, the minister intervened with the public prosecutor's office, which assigned the case to its military division. Piątek was accused of "insulting an official during his service and in connection with his work", threatened with a sentence of up to three years of imprisonment. After months of investigation, the public prosecutor's office has now closed the case.

Piątek himself assumes that he is monitored by Polish government at the latest since the publication of his book. For the organization "Reporters Without Borders" Piątek was the "Journalist of the Year 2017".

was born in 1967 in Istanbul. She began studying computer science and physics at Bosphorus University in 1983, then worked at the Faculty of Physics at the same university and also at CERN in Geneva. She wrote her first novella in 1990, while her first novel, Mucizevi Mandarin (Miraculous Mandarin), was published in 1996. She then focused on her work as an author. Her breakthrough as a writer came in 1998 with her third book, Kırmızı Pelerinli Kent (The City in a Crimson Cloak). From 1998 until 2001, she wrote columns for the left-liberal Turkish daily Radikal and reported on conditions in Turkish prisons, on violence against women and on state repression against Kurds. In addition, she worked on the PEN Writers in Prison Committee. In 2010, her novel Taş Bina ve Diğerleri (The Stone Building and Other Places) earned her the Sait Faik Award, Turkey’s most important literary prize. In the more recent years, scholarships took her to cities such as Zurich and Graz, and later she worked for the Turkish-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem.

On 16 August 2016 Asli Erdoğan was detained during a series of arrests at Özgür Gündem after prosecutors ordered the newspaper’s closure. Erdoğan has been charged with “propaganda for an illegal organisation”, “membership of an illegal organisation” and “incitement”. Her articles and columns have been used as evidence. In November 2016, the public prosecutor demanded lifelong imprisonment for the author, and the trial began on 29 December 2016. On the first day of the trial, the judge ordered her release from custody for health reasons. The trial continued and she was banned from leaving the country, although this ban was lifted for the time being in June 2017. In September of the same year, Erdoğan left Turkey. Since then, she lives in exile in Germany. The process against the author went on. In February 2020, the 23th Jury Court in Istanbul aquitted her of the alleged membership in a terroristic organisation and of anti-state activities. The allegation of "spreading propaganda of a terroristic organisation" was dropped, because it was lapsed due to Turkish press law. In October 2021, a court of appeal decided that the judges in Istanbul have to clearify, if Erdoğan could still be charged for her newspaper articles. On 10 February, 2022, a Turkish court finally acquitted Erdoğan of the charge of "terrorist propaganda".

was born in 1973 in Flörsheim am Main and has German and Turkish citizenship. He began studying political science at the Free University Berlin in 1996. From 1999, he worked as a freelance writer for media such as Tagesspiegel, taz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Standard as well as German broadcasters BR, NDR and WDR. He was an editor at taz from 2007 until 2015. Since 2015, Deniz Yücel has been the Turkey correspondent at the WeltN24 group. His work has repeatedly brought him into conflict with the Turkish authorities. Yücel was arrested again on 25 December 2016. He has been accused of carrying out “propaganda for a terrorist organisation and inciting violence”: He had reported on hacked emails from the account of Berat Albayrak – the Turkish energy minister and son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – which suggested corruption. After an arrest warrant was issued, Yücel voluntarily gave himself up to the police in February 2017. In March 2017, a judge ordered that he be remanded in custody.

On 16 February, 2018, Yücel was released from custody after the public prosecutor had previously presented the indictment against him. Yücel was accused of "propaganda for a terrorist organization" and "inciting the Turkish people to hatred and hostility". After his release from prison, Deniz Yücel left for Germany immediately. On 16 July, 2020, the 32nd Grand Criminal Chamber in Istanbul sentenced Yücel in absentia to two years, nine months and 22 days in prison.

On 25 January, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights decided that Turkey must pay compensation of 13,300 euros for Deniz Yücel's imprisonment. However, the judgment is not yet final. The litigants can contest it within three months.

Can Dündar, born in Ankara (Turkey) in 1961, studied journalism at the Faculty of Political Science of Ankara University (until 1982) and at the London School of Journalism (until 1986), received his master’s degree in 1988 and his PhD in Political Science from the Technical University of the Near East in Ankara in 1996. After that he worked for several newspapers and TV stations, including the public TRT from 1988 as well as for private channels such as CNN Türk and NTV. He worked as a columnist for the newspaper Milliyet for many years, where he was fired with immediate effect in 2013, probably due to critical columns on the protests in connection with Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Then he worked for Cumhurriyet and became editor-in-chief of the newspaper in early 2015. In May 2014 he published material on alleged entanglements of the Turkish state in the Syrian civil war together with the head of the newspaper’s Ankara office, Erdem Gül.

On 22 December, 2021, Can Dündar was sentenced in absentia to 18 years and nine months in prison because the judges believed he had obtained "state secrets for the purpose of military or political espionage". The court in Istanbul also sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison for "supporting a terrorist organization". Dündar's lawyers announced an appeal against the verdicts.

Aram Radomski, Siegbert Schefke,Roland Jahn and Christoph Wonneberger are essential actors of the “Peaceful Revolution” of 1989 in former East Germany as well as of the oppositional movement in advance of the events. Christoph Wonneberger, who has been a protestant pastor in Dresden (1977 to 1984) and Leipzig (since 1985), coordinated the Monday’s peace prayers in Leipzig’s St. Nicholas Church since 1986 and participated in the work of oppositional movements from within the church. In 1989, he maintained a “Demo-Telefon” (“protest phone”), where western journalist could inform themselves about the events in Leipzig. On the evening of 9 October 1989, Wonneberger gave an interview to ARD “tagesthemen” (West German news broadcast) and reported about the peaceful demonstration in Leipzig with 70.000 protestors.

Aram Radomski, Siegbert Schefke,Roland Jahn and Christoph Wonneberger are essential actors of the “Peaceful Revolution” of 1989 in former East Germany as well as of the oppositional movement in advance of the events. Christoph Wonneberger, who has been a protestant pastor in Dresden (1977 to 1984) and Leipzig (since 1985), coordinated the Monday’s peace prayers in Leipzig’s St. Nicholas Church since 1986 and participated in the work of oppositional movements from within the church. In 1989, he maintained a “Demo-Telefon” (“protest phone”), where western journalist could inform themselves about the events in Leipzig. On the evening of 9 October 1989, Wonneberger gave an interview to ARD “tagesthemen” (West German news broadcast) and reported about the peaceful demonstration in Leipzig with 70.000 protestors.

Farida Nekzad is one of the most renowned journalists in Afghanistan. After returning to her home country from exile in Pakistan and a short course study in India in 2002, she has been news director and editor in chief of the largest independent Afghan news agency “Pajhwok News” between 2004 and 2009. After that, she has been editor in chief of “Wakht News Agency”, which is especially dedicated to the reporting about women and women’s rights in Afghanistan. Until June 2014, she has been an elected member and director of the “Media Commission” within the Afghan “Independent Election Commission”, which should ensure a balanced media coverage of the parties standing for election in the context of the Afghan elections in 2014. Farida Nekzad trained young journalists in Afghanistan and is also active as an honorary board member of the transnational organisation “South Asian Women in Media”. Her commitment and journalistic activities made ​​her a respected voice in the fight for women’s rights and to freedom of the press – and also the target of multiple death threats, a bomb attack and an attempted kidnapping in the past. In 2014, Farida Nekzad lived in Germany as a guest of the “Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People” (www.hamburger-stiftung.de) but moved back into her home country in 2015. When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan again in August 2021, Nekzad managed to flee back to Germany.

Roland Jahn was expelled from the university because of his criticism of the expatriation of the famous East German songwriter Wolf Biermann in 1977. He was a co-founder of the “Friedenskreis Jena” (“peace circle Jena”) and was politically persecuted because of his commitment for freedom of expression. In 1982, he was remanded in custody, sentenced and prematurely released because of protests in West Germany. In June 1983, he was then thrown out of East Germany against his own will. Based from West Berlin, he supported the East German opposition financially and logistically e.g. by procuring printing machines or video cameras. As a journalist, he produced numerous contributions for ARD broadcasting (First German Television) about the East German opposition, violation of human rights and environmental pollution and thus essentially contributed to the formation of an opposing public. Since March 2011, Roland Jahn is Bundesbeauftragter of the Stasi-Unterlagen-Behörde (Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records).

Brigitte Alfter (Denmark) and Ides Debruyne (Belgium) are the initiators of “journalismfund.eu”. The organization, founded in 2008, promotes European, collaborative investigative journalism through scholarships and the European Data Harvest Conference for data and investigative journalism. Alfter and Debruyne saw the need for thorough research on European issues and wanted to liberate journalists from national borders impeding their work. The scholarships granted by the organization allow journalists to cooperate in multinational research teams. Typical examples of transnational issues are human trafficking, abuse of EU funding or illegal arms trade. Brigitte Alfter worked as Brussels correspondent for the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information and is a founding member of the Danish “Scoop” project for the promotion of investigative journalism, especially in Eastern Europe. Ides Debruyne is the Managing Director of “journalismfund.eu” and teaches journalism at the University of Ghent.

Brigitte Alfter (Denmark) and Ides Debruyne (Belgium) are the initiators of “journalismfund.eu”. The organization, founded in 2008, promotes European, collaborative investigative journalism through scholarships and the European Data Harvest Conference for data and investigative journalism. Alfter and Debruyne saw the need for thorough research on European issues and wanted to liberate journalists from national borders impeding their work. The scholarships granted by the organization allow journalists to cooperate in multinational research teams. Typical examples of transnational issues are human trafficking, abuse of EU funding or illegal arms trade. Brigitte Alfter worked as Brussels correspondent for the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information and is a founding member of the Danish “Scoop” project for the promotion of investigative journalism, especially in Eastern Europe. Ides Debruyne is the Managing Director of “journalismfund.eu” and teaches journalism at the University of Ghent.

Jörg Armbruster, ARD correspondent, and Martin Durm, radio reporter for SWR radio, assumed the risk to report independently and authentically on the suffering of the people in the civil war-torn country of Syria, which is supposed to be one of the most dangerous countries for journalists at the time. The value of their work cannot be overestimated because most images from Syria come from dubious second hand sources and might always be manipulated. In March 2013, during a joint research trip for a documentary, they ran into an ambush in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo. Armbruster was seriously injured. Armbruster and Durm risked their lives for independent reporting and receive the prize as a team for their reporting from Syria.

Jörg Armbruster, ARD correspondent, and Martin Durm, radio reporter for SWR radio, assumed the risk to report independently and authentically on the suffering of the people in the civil war-torn country of Syria, which is supposed to be one of the most dangerous countries for journalists at the time. The value of their work cannot be overestimated because most images from Syria come from dubious second hand sources and might always be manipulated. In March 2013, during a joint research trip for a documentary, they ran into an ambush in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo. Armbruster was seriously injured. Armbruster and Durm risked their lives for independent reporting and receive the prize as a team for their reporting from Syria.

The two Hungarian journalists Balázs Nagy Navarro and Aranka Szávuly are vice-presidents of the Independent Trade Union of television and film makers in Hungary and, until recently, were editors at public Hungarian television “MTV”. On 10 December 2011, after a scandalous blurring out of Zoltan Lomnici, the former head of the Hungarian Supreme Court, in public television news, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly initiated a three-week hunger strike protesting against news manipulation by pro-government responsibles of the channel. On the 17th day of the hunger strike, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly were dismissed illegally. After their dismissal they were not allowed to enter the public media buildings despite their rights as trade union leaders. Half a year later, Nagy Navarro was allowed by court order to pick up his personal belongings from the building. With the entry into force of the internationally controversial Hungarian media law in January 2011, the leading positions of public broadcasting have been filled with cadres close to the ruling party FIDESZ. These people abuse their powerful positions to manipulate news information almost daily, say numerous employees of the stations. In order to protest against these practices, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly started a hunger strike on 10 December 2011, which continued until 31 December. Shortly before, both editors were dismissed, although they enjoy protection from dismissal as trade unionists. Since their public protest, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly are often defamed or criticized by FIDESZ-controlled media outlets. When asked about his commitment, Nagy Navarro said: “I must always remember, that elsewhere people are risking their lives for civil rights. I am only risking my job.”

The two Hungarian journalists Balázs Nagy Navarro and Aranka Szávuly are vice-presidents of the Independent Trade Union of television and film makers in Hungary and, until recently, were editors at public Hungarian television “MTV”. On 10 December 2011, after a scandalous blurring out of Zoltan Lomnici, the former head of the Hungarian Supreme Court, in public television news, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly initiated a three-week hunger strike protesting against news manipulation by pro-government responsibles of the channel. On the 17th day of the hunger strike, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly were dismissed illegally. After their dismissal they were not allowed to enter the public media buildings despite their rights as trade union leaders. Half a year later, Nagy Navarro was allowed by court order to pick up his personal belongings from the building. With the entry into force of the internationally controversial Hungarian media law in January 2011, the leading positions of public broadcasting have been filled with cadres close to the ruling party FIDESZ. These people abuse their powerful positions to manipulate news information almost daily, say numerous employees of the stations. In order to protest against these practices, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly started a hunger strike on 10 December 2011, which continued until 31 December. Shortly before, both editors were dismissed, although they enjoy protection from dismissal as trade unionists. Since their public protest, Nagy Navarro and Szávuly are often defamed or criticized by FIDESZ-controlled media outlets. When asked about his commitment, Nagy Navarro said: “I must always remember, that elsewhere people are risking their lives for civil rights. I am only risking my job.”

Kurt Westergaard worked for many years as a teacher for German, English and Arts. Only when he turned 50, he began to draw cartoons professionally. Today, the 75-years-old is drawing for the Danish daily Jyllandsposten. On 30 September 2005, the newspaper published twelve cartoons of the prophet Mohamed. Westergaard’s cartoon showed the prophet with a bomb in his turban. Several months later, partly violent protests went around the world. More than 50 people died during the numerous riots. Several Muslim countries called for a penalty for Westergaard, whose drawings particularly provoked them. A fierce debate on freedom of opinion on the one hand and respect for religious beliefs on the other hand began shortly afterwards. Despite public death threats, Westergaard was the only cartoonist who publicly defended his right of freedom of opinion and refused to apologize. Because of this, he is protected by the police since late 2007. 2008 the police arrested several men in Århus who apparently wanted to kill Westergaard. Most recently, Westergaard could escape an attempted assassination in his own house on New Year’s Eve 2010. “It is absurd that you have to fear for your life in your own house, your own country only because you as a cartoonist have an own opinion others do not agree with”, says Westergaard. In May 2012, he distanced from the use of his Mohammed cartoons and his name by the right-winged German party “Pro NRW”: “My cartoon was a commentary on freedom of expression, and one should only link me with freedom of expression.” Kurt Westergaard passed away on 14 July, 2021.

Awards: – September 2010: M100-Media-Prize, awarded by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel for his contributions to the freedom of the press and expression

"You have to be crazy if you want to do something like this", said Ahmet Altan about his work. Until 2012, he has been editor in chief of Taraf (Point of View), a Turkish newspaper founded in 2007 that caused quite a few sensations in Turkey with its revelations. Altan started his career as a journalist and columnist for renowned newspapers such as Hürriyet or Milliyet, but repeatedly came into conflict with the Turkish state. He was sacked by Milliyet due to some journalistic work in which he fictionally laid out a picture of Kurdey, a state populated by a majority of Curds. He was banned and wrote novels. It was only with Taraf that he was able to return to his work as a journalist. In September 2008, he wrote an article about the genocide of Armenians and got prosecuted for dividing the Turkish nation. Regardless, Taraf continued making enemies within the Turkish government and the military, with an article, for instance, that focussed on a PKK attack which resulted in the death of 17 soldiers of the Turkish army. Taraf claimed, the Turkish army knew about this attack beforehand but did not introduce any measures against it. Taraf doesn't get any advertisements, is sued regularly by the authorities and, therefore, suffers from serious economic problems. Foreign correspondents in Turkey consider Taraf as being idealistic and uncompromising.

In 2016, Ahmet Altan and his brother Mehmet Altan were imprisoned after the failed coup d'etat against President Erdogan and were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018. It was not until April 2021, that Altan was released unexpectedly after a Turkish court of appeal overturned the original judgment for supporting terrorism as "unfounded". During his detention Altan received the German Geschwister-Scholl-Preis 2019. At the end of October 2021, Ahmet Altan was awarded the French Prix Femina in the "Foreign Novel" category for his novel Madame Hayat. Altan had written the novel while in prison.

Win Tin was a Burmese journalist and writer who has been imprisoned in Burma for more than 18 years. Arrested in 1989 for subversion and anti-governmental propaganda, he has been sentenced to 3, 7 and 10 years of prison in subsequent, secrete and non-public trials. Win Tin was editor in chief of Hanthawati daily newspaper, banned in 1978. He wrote numerous critical essays, was a consultant to the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and a leader of the “National League for Democracy” (NLD). Reasons of his prolonged imprisonment have been: his efforts to inform the UN about human rights violations in Burmese prisons and his unbending will not to renounce the NLD. On 23 September 2008, he was released from prison. He then tried to re-organise the NLD. He also visited families of political prisoners to give them moral support. In 2001 and 2006, Win Tin received the UNESCO-Prize for Freedom of the Press and the Human Rights Award of Reporters without Borders. On 21 April 2014, he died at the age of 84.

Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian correspondent of the newspaper Nowaja Gazeta. Despite of great resistance and the danger of her life she didn’t give up the reporting on the Chechen conflict. Russian correspondent Anna Politkovskaya had covered the Chechen war for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta since 1998. In her articles and books she described the numerous instances of cleansing, rape, execution and torture in this battered region, putting herself in great danger while doing her job. A mother of two children she repeatedly received threats on her life in Russia and had to be placed under police protection. In the Moscow musical theatre hostage crisis in 2002 she acted as mediator. In September 2004, when she prepared to cover the hostage taking in Beslan, Anna Politkovskaya was poisoned in an attempt to stop her from publishing reports contrary to the official version. However, two weeks later she was back on the job. She believed that “risk is part of the job. Either you do your work, knowing what you’re in for, or you leave it altogether.” Anna Politkovskaya was shot in Moscow on October 7th, 2006. Awards: – 2007: Guillermo-Cano-Prize (UNESCO-Prize for freedom of press; posthumously) – 2007: Geschwister-Scholl-Prize (posthumously) – 2007: Honorary membership of the Erich Maria Remarque-Society, Osnabrück (posthumously)

On November 15, 2020, Chultsova and her collegue Katsyaryna Bahvalava broadcasted a memorial meeting for Roman Bondarenko, who had been killed a few days earlier. Shortly afterwards they were arrested. A Belarusian court later assessed the broadcast as an “act that grossly violated public order”. Bahvalava and Chultsova were sentenced to two years in prison. The appeal against the judgement was dismissed at the end of April, 2021.

On November 15, 2020, Bahvalava and her collegue Darya Chultsova broadcasted a memorial meeting for Roman Bondarenko, who had been killed a few days earlier. Shortly afterwards they were arrested. A Belarusian court later assessed the broadcast as an “act that grossly violated public order”. Bahvalava and Chultsova were sentenced to two years in prison. The appeal against the judgement was dismissed at the end of April, 2021.

He has been involved in betting manipulation in sports since 2007, and in 2011, he was awarded the "CNN Journalist of the Year" for the report “Goal, Victory, Fraud - Betting manipulations in sports". In 2013, he published his non-fiction book "Bought Football - Manipulated Games and Cheated Fans". With "Dirty Games" Benjamin Best presented a documentary film for cinema on human rights violations in the context of major sporting events, in particular the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and 2022 in Qatar. "Dirty Games" was awarded "Best Director" and "Best Foreign Film" at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards and the "Silver World Medal" of the New York Festival 2016.

Best continues to concern himself with the problematic working and living situation of migrant workers at the construction sites of the World Cup stadiums in Qatar: in 2019, he published his new documentary "Trapped in Qatar". For the end of 2020, Best has already announced another report on the topic. For "Trapped in Qatar", Benjamin Best was awarded the "Georg von Holtzbrinck Award for Business Journalism" and was appointed the "Sports Journalist of the Year" by German Medium Magazin in 2019: Bests contribution was "without a doubt the best research in sports in 2019".

studied philology and initially worked for a number of local and foreign media in Azerbaijan. Until 2017, she worked as a radio presenter for the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe (RFE), which office in Baku was closed in 2015. Since 2017, she is a regional editor of the journalists’ network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. For more than a decade, Ismayilova has been working primarily on the corruption and nepotism of the Aliyev clan ruling in Azerbaijan, such as the ownership of the minor daughter of the airline Azerbaijan Airlines. At least since 2012, the regime has tried different methods to silence Ismayilova: new laws, dirty campaigns, arrests, and court cases. In 2014, the head of the Presidential Administration cited Ismayilova as "the best example of journalists working against the government". In September 2015, Ismayilova was finally sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for "tax evasion and abuse of power". After international criticism, she was released in 2016 and her sentence changed to probation in three and a half years. Ismayilova continues to be harassed: an exit ban was imposed on her in 2017, which is still valid. This prevented, among other things, the acceptance of the "Right Livelihood Award" (Alternative Nobel Prize), which she received in 2017.

Together with other foreign journalists, Ismayilova lodged a complaint with the German Federal Constitutional Court against the practice of telecommunications intelligence abroad by the Federal Intelligence Service. On 19 May 2020, the court ruled that the statutory regulation on "strategic surveillance" of telecommunications and, in addition, the disclosure of information obtained to domestic and foreign services does not comply with the German Basic Law and must be revised.

Armin Wolf was born in 1966 in Innsbruck, Austria. He started his career with ORF as a school leaver, working freelance for the regional studio in the Tirol. Since then he has worked as Political Editor in radio and TV, USA correspondent (1991-92), Editorial Director and presenter. Wolf regularly gives lectures and has published several books - the latest in 2013. It's titled "Why do we still need journalists?" In 2019, Wolf began to be talked about all over Europe following his TV interview with Harald Vilimsky, General Secretary of the right-wing FPÖ party. Vilimsky countered Wolf's critical questions about a poster displayed by the Styrian youth wing of the FPÖ that this "would have consequences" for the presenter. Even before that, Wolf had several times been a target for the FPÖ. Amongst other things he was accused of insubordination in his questioning and spreading "lies". In 2018 he did a highly respected interview in Moscow with Vladimir Putin. Wolf has been awarded many prizes for his work, amongst others as "Austrian journalist of the year 2004, 2018). In Germany he has received a special award of the Hanns Joachim Friedrich Prize (2016) and the Netzwerk Recherche Lighthouse Prize (2017) and a "Special Honour" Award of the Grimme Prize (2018). In addition to the Leipzig Media Prize, Armin Wolf also received the "Journalist of the Year" award at the "Prix Europa" 2019.