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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=5878">http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=5878</A></FONT></DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">STILL NO CHARGES
AGAINST ARRESTED GERMAN JOURNALIST<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">23 March 2004
</SPAN></P>
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style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><?xml:namespace
prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City
w:st="on"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">BRUSSELS</SPAN></st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> - Belgian police on
Tuesday had still not pressed charges against a German investigative journalist
arrested in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Brussels</st1:City></st1:place> last week after writing an article on
alleged fraud in the European Parliament.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hans-Martin Tillack,
who works for German newsweekly Stern, was arrested then released without charge
last Friday. Police also raided his office and his home and confiscated a number
of files, documents and notebooks, apparently after receiving a complaint from
the European Commission's anti-fraud unit OLAF.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">On Tuesday the
police still had not returned Tillack's papers but had pressed no charges
against the journalist.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Journalists' rights
organisations including the Brussels-based International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) and Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), which is based in
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Paris</st1:City></st1:place>, reacted
furiously to Tillack's arrest.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Both condemned the
police action as a serious attack on a journalist's right to protect his or her
sources.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">"This appears to be
a fishing expedition by police and security forces to try to expose where the
journalist got his information and who he has been speaking to," IFJ General
Secretary Aiden White said in a statement released after Tillack's
arrest.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">"It is all the more
suspicious because it comes at a time when <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region></st1:place>
is discussing long overdue rules on protection of journalists' sources," he
added.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">RSF said the raid
was a "violation of the principle of protection of sources, which is fundamental
for independent investigative journalism."</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Tillack is set to
meet with the Belgian police next week, when he hopes to get back some of his
papers.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>