Criticising Muslims: Austria’s secret service seeks to take action against the author of a letter to the editor

The Minister of the Interior seems to have some need for action here: Austria’s secret service, the newly named “Directorate of State Protection and Intelligence” (DSN), wants the eXXpress to disclose data of a reader because he sharply criticised the Muslim parallel society.

The letter from the “Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence” ((DSN – previously known as BVT) caused some astonishment in the eXXpress editorial office: Without stating an order by a public prosecutor’s office, the “DSN” employees want all data from an eXXpress reader.

The reason given by the secret service agents: “The ☐ accused ☒ unknown perpetrator is specifically suspected of having committed the offence according to § 283 StGB by publishing the comment of 19.01.2022, 17:28, a comment on the article in question with inflammatory content. The offender is suspected of having committed the offence under section 283 of the Criminal Code by publishing a commentary on the article with inflammatory content.

In this article, eXXpress once again presents the commentary so that every reader can decide for himself whether this criticism of the developments in Austria and of a Muslim parallel society is really inflammatory.

Even if one is absolutely not of the opinion of Mr. “Herzig” – the reader just wrote his personal opinion in a commentary: For example, that Muslims are allowed to “do what they want” here in our country. Or that they also – which might apply to only a few Muslims – “work little or not at all”.

Even if this opinion is completely mistaken, it could be considered the personal opinion of an Austrian.

This approach of trying to prevent media users from expressing their opinions freely by threatening them with a prison sentence of up to two years in case of a conviction according to § 283 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred) is highly questionable – just like the actions of the “DSN” without a mandate from the judiciary.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) has now been informed about these incidents in his Secret Service and State Protection Directorate: The persecution of readers with the threat of heavy prison sentences is no small matter.

We at eXXpress absolutely do not represent this reader opinion of the user “A. Herzig”, we also support – if this should take place – the public prosecutor’s office in its work. However, we will continue to clearly reject secret service snooping in the future.

The name of the head of the secret service is "Omar Haijawi-Pirchner", editor's note.

https://exxpress.at/kritik-an-muslime-oesterreichs-geheimdienst-ermittelt-gegen-exxpress-leser/