Question for written answer E-001948/2021 to the Commission Rule 138 Massimiliano Smeriglio (S&D), Pietro Bartolo (S&D), Carlo Calenda (S&D), Giuseppe Ferrandino (S&D), Elisabetta Gualmini (S&D), Pierfrancesco Majorino (S&D), Pina Picierno (S&D), Franco Roberti (S&D)
Subject: Protecting journalism in Europe: wire-tapping of journalists as part of the enquiry into NGOs
According to recent press reports, Trapani Public Prosecutor’s Office has in recent years listened into the phone calls of at least 15 journalists, transcribing their conversations with their sources, colleagues and lawyers.
The wire-taps were conducted as part of an enquiry launched in 2016 into the work of NGOs involved in rescue work in the Mediterranean. The journalists in question were following events concerning the NGOs but were not under investigation themselves. Their sources were therefore confidential and since they did not, moreover, provide the enquiry with information on the alleged contacts between humanitarian vessels and human traffickers, they should not have been exposed to any risk of disclosure and hence violation of the right to freedom of the press and the secrecy of its sources.
Any failure to ensure that the relationship between journalists and their sources remains confidential would lead to these sources evaporating and make it impossible for the press to perform its duties to the best of its abilities.
Can the Commission therefore indicate:
1. Whether it is aware of this case?
2. What specific initiatives it plans to take, within the ambit of the European Democracy Action Plan, to ensure better protection of the work done by journalists in Europe, especially as regards protecting professional secrecy and journalists’ sources, the disclosure of which compromises the relationship of trust that underpins journalism?
PE691.952v01-00