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29th Mar 2024

German reporter case probes EU respect for free press

The European Commission's respect for freedom of the press and its influence on the Belgian justice system came under scrutiny in the EU courts on Thursday (11 May), as German reporter Hans-Martin Tillack continued a four-year long fight to clear his name.

The commission's anti-fraud office, OLAF, has been smearing the journalist with bribery jibes since 2002 and strongarmed the Belgian police into snatching his contact books in 2004 in "retaliation" for his exposure of high-level EU fraud, Mr Tillack alleges.

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The Belgian police raid, which in theory gives OLAF access to the contact books, is a direct commission attempt to hunt down and scare off EU whistleblowers, violating the same principle of protection of sources that helped break the Watergate scandal in the 1970s US, his lawyers argued.

"What happens in Europe sets standards. Don't let what happened to Hans-Martin Tillack set the standard for Europe and the rest of the world," International Federation of Journalists lawyer Andreas Bartosch said on Mr Tilllack's behalf.

In a three hour-long hearing that saw discussion of the finer points of the European Convention of Human Rights, the commission hit back calling Mr Tillack's account "a cascade of defamatory allegations against OLAF instead of solid legal argument."

It washed its hands of any influence on the Belgian state, calling the accusation a "ridiculous conspiracy theory" that would cripple future OLAF cooperation with national authorities if upheld.

"In this case the determinant factor is the free exercise of Belgian sovereign power under Belgian law," the commission lawyer stated. "The opposition is in the wrong court, seeking the wrong verdict against the wrong defendant."

Verdict due in 2007

If the verdict, due in mid-2007, goes Mr Tillack's way, the commission would lose access to the contact books, risks a stream of fresh legal complaints from other OLAF malcontents and losing face in a tricky post-constitution "no" vote political climate.

Slip-ups in the reappointment of OLAF director Karl-Heinz Bruner, embarrassing leaks about "fake investigations" and withering reports on inefficiency have in the past two years already made the anti-fraud office a public relations liability.

Mr Tillack believes the judgment could still go either way, despite previously losing a string of related cases in the Belgian and German court systems. But the cards seem to be stacked against him in terms of EU law.

An expert explained the verdict hinges on the issue of "determinant factor" - if OLAF's allegations of bribery "determined" the police raid then the EU courts could step in on Mr Tillack's side. But if the Belgian judiciary is deemed to have ordered the raid independently, the case falls outside EU law.

Two previous non-binding opinions from the EU courts' legal experts have already recommended the latter view.

OLAF chuckles

"If I were a Belgian judge, I would not regard these comments on my authority as very laudatory," presiding judge Hubert Legal told Mr Tillack's side on Thursday, raising audible chuckles from the OLAF camp.

"Press is a matter of freedom, but it's also a matter of business," he added, referring to the idea that both Mr Tillack and his employer, German media giant Stern, have gained kudos in press circles from the ongoing row.

But EU judges are notoriously hard to second-guess, a Brussels legal veteran told EUobserver, even if they are not 100 percent innocent of political considerations such as saving EU face.

"The thing that cheered me up the most today," Mr Tillack indicated "is that after all these years and all this effort, the commission still has no clue of who my leak was."

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