I’m Marie Bröckling, a data journalist based in Berlin covering criminal justice and China. I’m currently freelancing.

 

I regularly work for NBC News and ZDF.

In 2018, I wrote about a proposed law that would allow German police to hold people in jail indefinitely without trial. The story reached more than a million people and sparked a national debate on state surveillance. In the end, crucial parts of the proposed law were reversed, and I was invited as an expert on police law in five state parliaments.

Please feel free to reach out for any reason!

 
 

AWARDS

Top 30 under 30 by Medium Magazin, 2023.

Surveillance Studies Award, extra price of the jury, 2019.

Press Freedom Award by the Bavarian Journalist Association, second prize, 2019.

TALKS

I regularly give talks at international conferences, on podcasts, and in classrooms. I have been invited as expert on police law to five state parliaments in Germany.

 
 

On a panel about state surveillance at the re:publica conference in Detroit in 2019.

At a TV set in the newly opened Futurium museum in Berlin in 2020, speaking about safe cities.

Talk about new technologies used by police at the hackerspace c-base in Berlin in 2020.

Presenting on the grande stage of the Peoples Theatre (Volksbühne) in Berlin in 2019.

 

CLIPPINGS

Empfohlen
For years, Germany was a soft target for Russian spies. Things are changing fast.
For years, Germany was a soft target for Russian spies. Things are changing fast.

The case of an alleged Russian mole inside Germany’s intelligence service has raised alarms in Berlin, where Russia has long spied aggressively and may have assassinated a foe.

Superyacht struggle: Is Hong Kong now safe harbor for sanctioned Russians?
Superyacht struggle: Is Hong Kong now safe harbor for sanctioned Russians?

Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said Tuesday that the city had no legal basis to act on a Russian oligarch’s superyacht in the city. 

First Russia, now China? Europe doesn’t appear ready to ‘decouple’ from Beijing just yet
First Russia, now China? Europe doesn’t appear ready to ‘decouple’ from Beijing just yet

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was the first leader of a Group of 7 nations to visit China since the start of the pandemic.

Beijing locks itself down as a wave of cases and uncertainty follows ‘zero Covid’ retreat
Beijing locks itself down as a wave of cases and uncertainty follows ‘zero Covid’ retreat

"More than half of my colleagues have Covid right now," one Beijing resident told NBC News of the virus surging through the capital of the world’s most populous country.

DATA PROJECTS

I write code in R to analyze online networks and scrape data off the web.

 
 
Empfohlen
Chinese Officials
Chinese Officials

I used R and Selenium to scrape Twitter accounts that is labeled as China state-affiliated on Twitter. With 401 accounts it is one of the most complete lists of Chinese officials on social media. You are welcome to use it, it’s available on DataHub.

Network of Chinese Officials on Twitter
Network of Chinese Officials on Twitter

In 2019, Chinese officials joined Twitter on a large scale, making China one of the world’s largest digital public diplomacy players. I used the Twitter API to visualize the network of follower/following relationships among Chinese diplomats, including gender and creation date.