BERLIN, May 25 (UPI) -- The German government has decided to declassify a report into the federal intelligence service's spying activities on journalists.
Opposition lawmakers and journalist unions had called on the government to publish the 170-page report, which will be made available to the public Friday.
The Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, reportedly spied on several journalists critical of the agency. They were alleged to have studied the phone and fax records of one journalist who published a book about the BND that included sensitive material, in a bid to find the leak inside the service.
The service also employed journalists to spy on their colleagues. A former journalist working for the news magazine Focus was paid nearly $400,000 for his services from 1982 until 1998.
The allegations were first delivered in a report to a parliamentary commission overseeing the intelligence services. Although the commission meets in secret, the report's contents were leaked to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Several journalists have filed legal suits to have their names blackened out for what they say are privacy rights.
The German government has ruled that journalists are off limits for surveillance in the future. The BND is authorized to gather intelligence in foreign countries, and may work domestically only if its security is endangered.
It remains to be seen whether officials from the intelligence service will stumble over the affair, once the report is published.
