The Wire

Press freedom was dealt a blow last friday after a ruling by the European Court that could give European Union officials access to an investigative journalist’s confidential files. Hans-Martin Tillack, former Brussells correspondent for German Newspaper Stern, has written a series of hard-hitting exposes of fraud and corruption within the European Union over the past five years. Belgian police seized his files in March this years after a European Union official complained that Tillack had bribed his sources to gain access to confidential documents. Tillack then applied to the European Court to prevent the European Union’s anti-fraud office from getting access to the files but the Court dismissed the application, saying it was a matter for the Belgian courts. The police case against him has not yet been completed, but there is now nothing to prevent the EU’s anti-fraud squad from inspecting Tillack’s files, some of which are not related to the present case. The International Federation of Journalists has joined Tillack in his campaign to prevent his files from falling into the hands of European Union officials. To discuss the case, Aiden White, the IFJ’s Human Rights and Information Officer spoke to James Fletcher on the line from Brussels.

International Federation of Journalists