Hans-Martin Tillack (born 1961 in

Königs Wusterhausen Königs Wusterhausen (; , ) is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany a few kilometers outside Berlin. Geography Geographical location Königs Wusterhausen – locally known as "KW" () or "KWh" ()– lie ...

, near Berlin), is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

reporter, who grew up in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. He studied politology and sociology in

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

and Berlin, worked for five years as reporter for

taz Taz or TAZ may refer to: Geography *Taz (river), a river in western Siberia, Russia *Taz Estuary, the estuary of the river Taz in Russia People * Taz people, an ethnic group in Russia ** Taz language, a form of Northeastern Mandarin spoken by ...

before coming to

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

in 1993 – first in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, from 1999 to 2004 in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, today in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In 2005, he received the Leipziger Medienpreis for his EU reporting. He was the most efficient in exposing

Eurostat scandal In 2000, internal auditors raised concerns about fictitious contracts of Eurostat with outside companies and referred the matter to the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF. OLAF did not react. In 2001, Paul van Buitenen, whose earlier report had in ...

, the EU statistical body based in Luxembourg. Working for German news magazine

, for months he wrote his successive findings and Stern magazine published his revelations about hidden accounts and fictitious contracts. Until May 16, 2003 when Financial Times headlines revealed "A vast enterprise for looting community funds". Two top French managers were removed from office and the whole Eurostat directorate was dismissed. Six separate

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

investigations into Eurostat were required by

OLAF Olaf or Olav (, , or differences between General American and Received Pronunciation, British ; ) is a Dutch, Polish, Scandinavian and German given name. It is presumably of Proto-Norse origin, reconstructed as ''*Anu-laibaz'', from ''anu'' "ances ...

, the EU anti-fraud body. Subsequently Hans-Martin Tillack was arrested by Belgian police at the instigation of authorities of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, whose bodies he was investigating in relation to allegations of fraud. OLAF suggested that the reporter had bribed EU officials in order to gather documents for an article he published in 2002 on alleged irregularities in OLAF. An action by Belgian police followed that resulted in the journalist being detained by the police for several hours, his home and office being searched, and possessions including 16 boxes of documents, two archive boxes, two computers and four mobile phones being seized. In 2007, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

judged that Hans-Martin Tillack'
right not to reveal his sources of information
had been violated and asked Belgium to pay him €10,000 for moral damages as well as €30,000 in costs. The hundreds of pages of seized documents were eventually returned to him in 2008. In January 2009, the Belgian judiciary on Tuesday definitively closed the case brought by the EU anti-fraud office, OLAF, in 2004 against Hans-Martin Tillack. Aidan White, general secretary of the

European Federation of Journalists The European Federation of Journalists is the European regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists. It describes itself as the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, and says it represents about 320,000 journalists ...

(EFJ) which supported Mr Tillack throughout the case, argued the need for EU officials to apologise to the journalist.

Books

* ''Die korrupte Republik: Über die einträgliche Kungelei von Politik, Bürokratie und Wirtschaft'' (The corrupt Republic: Lucrative fiddling of politics, bureaucracy and economy), by Hans-Martin Tillack,

Hoffmann und Campe Hoffmann is a German surname. People A * Adolph Hoffmann (1858–1930), German politician * Albert Hoffmann (1846–1924), German horticulturist * Alexander Hoffmann (born 1975), German politician * Andrew Hoffman (born 2000), American baseball ...

, 2009 * ''Raumschiff Brüssel. Wie die Demokratie in Europa scheitert'' (Spaceship Brussels. How democracy in Europe fails), by Andreas Oldag and Hans-Martin Tillack,

Fischer Fischer is a German occupational surname, meaning fisherman. The name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. The English version is Fisher. People with the surname A * Abraham Fischer (1850–1913) South African public official * ...

(paperback), 2004 * ''Raumschiff Brüssel. Wie die Demokratie in Europa scheitert'', by Andreas Oldag and Hans-Martin Tillack, Argon Verlag, 2003

External links

exberliner.com/articles/muckraker
– Interview in English with Hans-Martin Tillack in EXBERLINER Magazine ;Articles: *
German reporter comes out on top in EU bribery case
', Elitsa Vucheva,

EUobserver ''EUobserver'' is a European online newspaper, launched in 2000 by the Brussels-based organisation EUobserver.com ASBL. The newspaper provides both daily reports and in-depth coverage on international affairs related to the European Union (EU). ...

, 6.1.2009 *
EU anti-fraud office denies responsibility in journalist leak case
', Elitsa Vucheva, EUobserver, 30.11.2007 *
German journalist gets court backing in EU leak case
', Elitsa Vucheva, EUobserver, 28.11.2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tillack, Hans-Martin 1961 births Living people German male journalists German journalists German male writers Stern (magazine) people

Books

See also

External links