The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the protection of the identity of sources is an essential pillar of freedom of the press. In so doing it awarded damages to the German investigative journalist, Hans Martin Tillack, whose home was raided after he published reports alleging fraud within the European Union.
Though the court found against Belgium, rather than the European Union institutions, its decision is an embarrassment to the EU. In March 2004, Tillack, then the Brussels correspondent of Stern magazine, was detained for several hours as police confiscated boxes of documents, computers and mobile phones. The raid followed the 2002 publication of reports detailing fraud allegations at the EU's statistical agency.
The court said that the ability of journalists to protect the identity of sources "could not be considered a mere privilege to be granted or taken away."
"At last this shocking violation of journalists' rights has been rectified," said Aidan White, general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists. (Via International Herald Tribune)
