Sebastian Heiser

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sebastian Heiser (* 1979 ) is a German investigative journalist . He became known with several revelations for Die Tageszeitung (Taz). In 2015 it was discovered that he had used technical means to spy on colleagues in the 'Taz'.

Education and career

Heiser studied business administration and was trained at the Cologne journalism school for politics and economics. In 2007 he worked for a short time in the supplement editorial department of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), where he was responsible for all financial supplements . From 2008 to 2015 he worked for Die Tageszeitung (Taz), first as an editor for state politics in the local section of Berlin, then as a research editor.

During this time in Berlin, Heiser, volunteered his services as a lay judge in court. At the same time, he himself often sought legal recourse to demand information rights from authorities who refused to provide him with information.

Revelations

In 2001, as a young 22-year-old journalist, Heiser prevented an unreliable property developer from building an underground car park under the central Kaiserplatz through an article in the Dürener Zeitung .

Berlin water treaties

In 2010 Heiser gained national fame through the publication of part of the Berlin Water Contracts in the daily newspaper (Taz). It became known that Berlin was guaranteeing buyers high profits at the expense of consumers when it privatized its water companies. In 2014, the citizens' alliance “Berliner Wassertisch” denied Heiser's statement that he had published the entire contract. In reality, Heiser only got parts of the consortium agreement leaked. With his claim that he had already published the entire contract, Heiser had helped the Senate as well as RWE and Veolia, shareholders of Berliner Wasserbetriebe. They wanted to prevent disclosure of the document, including all ancillary agreements.

Buyability of newspapers

Subsequently, Heiser covertly researched as “Tobias Kaiser” from the fictional advertising agency “Coram Publico” with ten well-known publishers, whose buyability for third-party editorial content in advertising supplements, i.e. prohibited surreptitious advertising . The results were published in April 2011 in the Taz. and triggered lively reactions, which the media magazine Zapp later took up in an article using video material from Heiser and interviews with him and Hubertus Gersdorf . The unaffected SZ also reported benevolently, only complaining about the “loud title” and the “sticky” cartoons of the Taz on the subject.

As a result, only the Bildzeitung , Der Spiegel and the Handelsblatt rejected Heisers offers in principle, while the Frankfurter Rundschau , Die Zeit , das Neues Deutschland and the WAZ-Verlag were, to a different extent, open to the editorial influence of advertisers, at least in the area of ​​inserts , which Gersdorf sharply condemned as a professor of communication law in an interview with Zapp .

However, Heiser's attempt to describe experiences from his time as a supplement editor at the Süddeutsche Zeitung in the course of the publication in the Taz failed . He had previously unsuccessfully offered this to several other editorial offices who had used methods that were journalistically inadmissible. Heiser had recorded conversations with his colleagues at the time without their knowledge, although such recordings are prohibited. After the legal advisor of the Taz had already expressed concerns about the publication of the new research, the editor-in-chief only allowed this by saving the time at the SZ. At the beginning of 2015, Heiser then published 60 pages on his own responsibility in a specially created blog , including audio files with the secretly recorded conversations at the SZ. The SZ rejected the allegations and claimed that Heiser had not informed any superiors at the time, which he refuted with another covert audio recording.

Spying on your own colleagues

In 2015 it was discovered that Heiser had spied on colleagues at the Taz with a keylogger for at least a year . The Taz then terminated the employment relationship and filed a criminal complaint. In June 2016, she published a comprehensive reconstruction. According to this, Heiser is said to have intercepted the data of at least 23 people, including 19 women who mostly worked as interns at the newspaper. Among other things, Heiser recorded passwords and emails and, in at least one case, gained access to someone else's Facebook account.

Shortly after the keylogger was discovered and he was fired from the Taz, Heiser moved to Southeast Asia. At the end of 2016, the public prosecutor charged him with intercepting and spying on data in 14 cases. In 2017, the court issued a penalty order in absentia for 160 daily rates of 40 euros, which became legally binding because Heiser accepted it.

reception

In 2010 Medium Magazin chose him as “Newcomer of the Year” due to the disclosure of the Berlin water contracts. In its justification, the jury praised “his self-critical journalistic attitude” as “exceptional”.

Volker Lilienthal rated Heiser's audio recordings in the SZ as a violation of editorial secrecy and "absurd". Nevertheless, he thought surreptitious advertising in the press was very worth discussing.

Web links

  • Sebastian Heiser's website , apparently no longer updated
  • Weblog Sebastian Heisers, motto "clear and precise"

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Heiser. nr annual conference 2011. Netzwerk Recherche , accessed on December 17, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Martin Kaul, Sebastian Erb: File name LOG.TXT. Keylogger affair in the taz. Die Tageszeitung , June 4, 2016, accessed on December 16, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Sebastian Heiser: The predatory water privatization. The daily newspaper , October 29, 2010, accessed on December 17, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Sebastian Heiser - an investigative journalist? Berlin water table , accessed on December 17, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Sebastian Heiser - an investigative journalist? - Berlin water table . In: Berlin water table . August 3, 2014 ( berliner-wassertisch.info [accessed September 4, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Sebastian Heiser - an investigative journalist? - Berlin water table . In: Berlin water table . August 3, 2014 ( berliner-wassertisch.info [accessed September 4, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Sebastian Heiser: Influence to sell. Surreptitious advertising in newspapers. The daily newspaper , April 1, 2011, accessed on December 16, 2017 .
  8. ↑ a b ZAPP about Sebastian Heiser and his surreptitious advertising research. Video of the Zapp contribution. YouTube user "Rolf Bitzan", July 10, 2012, accessed on December 16, 2017 .
  9. ^ A b Marc Felix Serrao: Cover name "taz". "Taz": surreptitious advertising for print media. Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 4, 2011, accessed on December 16, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: wiretapping affairs with SZ and taz: The spy who seventh them . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed September 4, 2018]).
  11. ↑ Markus Kompa: Authorized Spying. Sebastian Heiser and the editorial secret. Telepolis , February 23, 2015, accessed December 16, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Michael Hanfeld : The spy who seventh them. Wiretapping affairs at SZ and TAZ. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 21, 2015, accessed on December 16, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: wiretapping affairs with SZ and taz: The spy who seventh them . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed September 4, 2018]).
  14. ↑ Stefan Winterbauer: SZ-Leaks: Süddeutsche rejects allegations of surreptitious advertising. February 17, 2015, accessed December 16, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Stefan Winterbauer: What is left of the “SZ Leaks” (note: not much). February 15, 2015, accessed December 16, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Robin Alexander: taz editor is said to have spied on colleagues. Die Welt , February 20, 2015, accessed December 17, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Sebastian Heiser: journalist accused of spying at German newspaper. The Guardian , March 2, 2015, accessed December 17, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Martin Kaul, Sebastian Erb: Former taz editor condemned. Keylogger affair. The daily newspaper , February 17, 2017, accessed on December 16, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Michael Hanfeld : You don't dare to speak openly anymore. Wiretapping affairs at SZ and TAZ; Interview with Volker Lilienthal . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 24, 2015, accessed on December 16, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Gita Datta: “I have been silent all these years”. Zapp interview with Volker Lilienthal ; Video no longer available. Norddeutscher Rundfunk , February 25, 2015, archived from the original on February 27, 2015 ; accessed on December 16, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Hoarse, Sebastian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1979