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Image header Agence Europe
Europe Daily Bulletin No. 8677
Contents Publication in full By article 26 / 39
GENERAL NEWS / (eu) ep/olaf/press

MEPs criticise OLAF and Belgian justice in Tillack affair

Strasbourg, 30/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - At the opening of the plenary session of the European Parliament on Monday in Strasbourg, several MEPs including Danish sovereignist Jens-Peter Bonde and British Conservative Christopher Heaton-Harris were highly critical about the search and investigation against Hans-Martin Tillack, correspondent in Brussels for the German magazine Stern (see EUROPE of 24 March, p.13). They reproached the Belgian judiciary and police for not having recognised the freedom of the press and the fundamental right to protect one's sources of information, recognised by the European Court of Human Rights. They also raised questions about the role played by the Community Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) which is said to be at the origin of the intervention by Belgian justice. Austrian Social Democrat Herbert Bösch also called for light to be shed on the allegations concerning OLAF, which is said to have sought by this means to put pressure on the journalist in the context of the Eurostat affair.

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