Radio Dreyeckland home search · 1 BvR 259/24
Federal Constitutional Court · 3 November 2025
A Freiburg radio journalist reported on the end of an investigation and linked to an online archive associated with a banned organisation. Investigators suspected him of supporting the organisation. A judge authorised a search of his home. The constitutional complaint asked what evidence justified such an intrusion into a journalist’s work.
Why the article mattered
The constitutional judges examined the link in the context of the reporting. A search can expose notes, contacts and unpublished work. Before authorising it, a court had to identify concrete grounds for suspecting criminal support and take seriously the possibility that the link served a journalistic purpose. The reasons given fell short.
What the journalist secured
The Federal Constitutional Court found a violation of his freedom of broadcasting. It set aside the relevant part of the Stuttgart court’s decision upholding the search and sent the question of costs back to that court. By then the search had already happened. The relief was a judicial finding about the intrusion.
Reading the decision in context
The judgment turns on the article, the alleged offence and the evidence available when the warrant was issued. It gives a reader a concrete way to test the reasoning behind a warrant against a journalist.
Read the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling
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