March 20, 2004

"The Real Treatment"

Ahhh... Europe, land of the free. Well, unless of course you're a reporter investigating EU corruption.

Police arrested a leading investigative journalist yesterday on the orders of the European Union, seizing his computers, address books and archive of files in a move that stunned Euro-MPs.

Hans-Martin Tillack, the Brussels correspondent for Germany's Stern magazine, said he was held for 10 hours without access to a lawyer by the Belgian police after his office and home were raided by six officers.

"They asked me to tell them who my sources were. I replied that was something I would never do. Now they have all my sensitive files, so I suppose they'll find out anyway," he said last night.

"The police said I was lucky I wasn't in Burma or central Africa, where journalists get the real treatment," he added.

Posted by Ithildin at March 20, 2004 5:05 PM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE

Read "The Rotten Heart of Europe" by former Eurocrat Bernard Conolley: the EU is all this bad and worse.

Posted by: Dave J at March 20, 2004 6:13 PM