Germany: German media organisations have attacked a court ruling that allows investigators to monitor the mobile phones of journalists.
The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled yesterday that the authorities may monitor the phone calls made by journalists on their mobile phones if it concerns a crime of "considerable importance".
"We are not happy with the ruling," said Mr Rolf Lautenbach, head of the Association of German Journalists (DJV). "Every informant will think three times before calling a journalist if he has to fear that criminal investigators will save his telephone number."
The ruling allows investigators to monitor calls on journalists' mobile phones, the time of the call, the telephone numbers involved and the locations of both parties to the call.
The ruling does not change the laws that allow authorities to listen in on mobile phone calls.
The case came to court after investigators monitored the mobile phone of Ms Edith Kohn, a journalist working for Stern magazine in May 1998. At the time she was in contact with Mr Hans-Joachim Klein, an alleged member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) left-wing terrorist group.
Investigators used information from Ms Kohn's telephone calls to find and arrest Mr Klein.
