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.
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.
