Dutch newspaper sues spy agency over phone taps

The Dutch national security service (AIVD) is being taken to court after De Telegraaf newspaper discovered that it was being bugged.

The paper, together with the journalists’ union NVJ and the and the editors' association, lodged a complaint against the Dutch state on Wednesday. They are demanding that telephone tapping and house raids of journalists stop immediately and that any material that has been confiscated be returned. The case will be heard on 16 July.

Last month the home of one of the newspaper’s journalists, Jolande van der Graaf, was raided by police after a secret service employee and her partner were arrested for leaking information. The paper reported Wednesday that the agency has tapped the phones Van der Graaf but also of other senior staff, including editor Sjuul Paradijs.

“Now that free reporting is at risk, national journalism is taking joint action,” De Telegraaf wrote on Wednesday. Chairman of the journalists’ union, Huub Elzerman, said it is logical that the union supports the paper as his organisation promotes international press freedom. “This is a gross violation of source protection, now that it appears journalists are being bugged. This means that a journalist cannot guarantee the protection [of anonymity] of a whistle-blower or citizen,” Elzerman said.

In a statement on its website the organisation pointed out that journalists often rely on anonymous sources to bring wrongdoings to light. It said that the secret service practices undermine the reliability and independence of journalists. “If a country accepts that the intelligence service and police investigate and bug journalists to cover up their own failures, it is a direct threat to a constitutional society,” the statement read.