On Wednesday, staff at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht – Berlin's university of economics and law – discovered hidden cameras installed in the women's toilets at their Lichtenberg campus. The devices had been attached with velcro to hygiene-bag dispensers and bins in bathrooms across several buildings. In some areas, only the velcro mounts were found, raising the possibility that some devices had already been removed.
"This is an incredibly insidious violation of the personal rights of our female students. There must be no place for voyeurs."
HEIST is a worker-owned online magazine, founded by writers and editors who after years working across Berlin's media landscape believed something essential was missing.
Anyone living here has felt a growing gap between the city as it actually is and the version being served up by mainstream outlets. We experienced that disconnect firsthand. We saw political censorship shape coverage decisions and felt the weight of billionaire ownership land directly on our work. It reached a point where we could either keep going along with it, or try to build something better.
That's why we created HEIST.
And look at you: scrolling, clicking, squinting at blurred text just to get a little further. If you'll go to that much effort to read HEIST, you can surely give us one email. That's the whole price, and the rest of the story is right behind it.
Real journalism costs money. We commission the hard-hitting, well-reported, long-form work everyone wants to read but nobody seems to publish anymore.
The future of this city is still in the balance. We intend to be part of that struggle. We hope that you'll join us.
