The Digital News Initiative is a European organisation created by Google to "support high-quality journalism through technology and innovation". It encompasses an "Innovation Fund" worth €150m, which in 2018 issued grants to 461 projects at news organisations across Europe. Google has faced skepticism by newsrooms, despite their acceptance of grants and tools as summed up by the 2020 report by Netzpolitik .
8-783: Google describe the goal of the Initiative as "helping journalism thrive in the digital age". The company breaks spending into four areas: However, German group Netzpolitik report that Veit Dengler , chairman of the DNI Fund Council, described it as "a PR instrument for Google to win over the European publishing industry". The Initiative's fund donates 88% of its dispensations to western Europe, and 54% to organisations founded before 1997. Prospective recipients are required to demonstrate how they create "economic value added for [their] business". In 2018, while campaigning against
16-805: The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , an intelligence agency, by producing two articles, first in February 2015 and then in April 2015. On July 31, 2015, netzpolitik.org announced: Today, we received a letter from the Federal Attorney General of Germany confirming ongoing investigations against our reporters Markus Beckedahl, Andre Meister and an "unknown" source, suspecting us of treason according to
24-652: The German Penal Code. Up until that point, they were known to have been witnesses in the case, but this letter confirmed that they would be investigated as "joint principals". The last time such charges were brought against a journalist in Germany was in 1962 amid much uproar, when the editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel was accused of treason for publishing secret documents about the German defense forces, and spent 103 days in prison (see Spiegel affair ). In
32-427: The aftermath of the treason investigation, Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas forced Public Prosecutor General Harald Range into retirement for breach of public trust on 4 August 2015. The bloggers describe themselves as a platform for digital freedoms, specifically fighting against mass surveillance . netzpolitik.org is extensively reporting on the ongoing intelligence scandals, consequently live-covering
40-618: The proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market , Google encouraged members of the Initiative's working group to lobby their regional MEPs . The private request was revealed by the Financial Times , itself a recipient of grants from the Initiative, and was also published in full by German group Netzpolitik . It begins: One of the actions from our DNI WG meeting in Lisbon was about more information about
48-651: The proposed Copyright Directive. Apologies for the delay on my side and the timing is urgent as there is a vote in the Juri committee [linked] of the European Parliament on June 20th on the Copyright directive. If you feel strongly about this, then please condsider contacting the MEPs [linked] on the Juri committee. All the best - Madhav Attached to the letter were a bullet pointed list of Google's opinions on
56-488: The proposed reforms. Madhav Chinnappa, author of the email and "Director of News Ecosystem Development" at Google, later stated that the message had been sent in response to a request for comment by members of the working group. Netzpolitik.org netzpolitik.org is a German language news website on digital rights and digital culture. Among other topics, it covers mass surveillance , open source software , data protection and privacy and net neutrality . The blog
64-410: Was founded in 2002 by Markus Beckedahl, who led the project until July 2022 and still works on the project today, supported by more than 30 other contributors. Since August 2022, netzpolitik.org is led by two Co-Editors-in-Chief Anna Biselli and Daniel Leisegang. In Spring 2015, netzpolitik.org leaked internal government documents which detailed the proposed surveillance expansion of social networks by
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