European

ARNE KÖNIG
President

Federation AIDAN WHITE

General Secretary

of Journalists RENATE SCHROEDER

MARC GRUBER
Co-Directors

15 July 2010

Dear Mr. XX,

Review of the Data Retention Directive:

Its Harm on Press Freedom and Democracy in the EU

We write to you on behalf of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the regional
group of the International Federation of Journalists representing more than 260.000
journalists across Europe, including all EU Member States.

We would like to draw your attention to the growing threat to press freedom caused by the
EU Data Retention Directive (2006/24/EC), the so-called “big brother” legislation that
allows telecommunications companies to store data of all of their customers'
communications. The journalists’ community together with civil society groups has felt the
increasing threat posed by the Directive on press freedom in Europe.

An assessment on the application of the Directive is currently undergoing by the European

Commission under the services of Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, responsible for the
EU Home Affairs. The Commission will submit by 15 September the assessment to the
European Parliament and the European Council.

With this letter, we wish you could put forward the concerns of journalists and civil society
groups on press freedom and ask the Commission to make the Directive optional for
Member States during the review of the Directive.

The Directive creates a process for recording details of who communicated with whom via
various electronic communications systems. In the case of mobile phone calls and SMS
messages, the respective location of the users is also recorded. In combination with other
data, Internet usage is also to be made traceable.

The EFJ and its affiliates in the Member States, together with other European and national
civil society groups believe that such an invasive surveillance on the entire population is
unacceptable and violated the fundamental right of privacy as laid down in Article 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights. With a data retention regime in place, sensitive
information about social and business contacts including those of journalists is collected in
the absence of any suspicion.

rue de la Loi 155, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium

Tel.: +32 (0)2 235 22 00; Fax: +32 (0)2 235 22 19
Website: http://europe.ifj.org ; E-Mail: efj@ifj.org
Telecommunications data retention undermines the important principle of protection of
sources for journalists which was repeatedly reaffirmed by the European Court of Human
Rights as the cornerstone of press freedom. Such rights are constitutionally protected in
some European countries. It therefore violates the freedom of the press and damages
preconditions of our open and democratic societies in Europe.

We would wish to draw your attention on the Resolution on Developments in anti-terrorism

legislation in Council of Europe Member States and their impact on freedom of expression
and information adopted by the Ministers of States participating in the 1st Council of
Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Media and New Communication Services,
held in Reykjavik on 28 and 29 May 2009. The Resolution is based on the understanding
of the Ministers that existing Directive has become a growing threat to media freedom and
the freedom of speech in Europe. The adoption of the Resolution aims to change such a
trend.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted important standard-
setting texts designed to assist Member States in this respect, including: Guidelines on
human rights and the fight against terrorism (11 July 2002); Declaration on freedom of
expression and information in the media in the context of the fight against terrorism (2
March 2005); Guidelines on protecting freedom of expression and information in times of
crisis (26 September 2007).

Legal experts expect the European Court of Justice to follow the Constitutional Court of
Romania as well as the European Court of Human Rights’ Marper judgement and declare
the retention of telecommunications data in the absence of any suspicion incompatible
with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

As representatives of journalists together with civil society groups we reject the Directive
on telecommunications data retention. We would highly appreciate it if you could address
our concerns on press freedom with regard to the Directive to the Commission during the
review processes.

Please find enclosed the following questions we wish you to put forwards to the
Commission:

Questions which you could ask the Commission:

1. What will the Commission do to address a mass opposition to the Directive on

legitimate concerns? Civil liberties, data protection and human rights associations, crisis
line and emergency call operators, professional associations of journalists, jurists and
doctors, trade unions, consumer organisations and industry associations all oppose the
intrusive surveillance of the Directive.

2. The blanket collection of all telecommunications data deters informants from passing
confidential information of public interest to journalists by telephone, fax or the Internet.
One in 14 journalists says that data retention has negative effects on their work.

rue de la Loi 155, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium 2

Tel.: +32 (0)2 235 22 00; Fax: +32 (0)2 235 22 19
Website: http://europe.ifj.org ; E-Mail: efj@ifj.org
(http://www.dfjv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/DFJV_Studie_Freie_Journalisten.pdf). Is the
Commission considering making the Directive optional so that Member States can ensure
the untraceability of contacts to the press?

3. The Constitutional Court of Romania decided in 2009 that blanket retention of all
communications data violates fundamental rights (http://twiturl.de/DRromania). Is the
Commission considering making the Directive optional so that Member States can comply
with their constitutions?

Thank you very much for taking these proposals into account. If you have any questions,
do not hesitate to call our European office (contact: renate.schroeder@ifj.org).

Yours Sincerely,

Arne König Aidan White

EFJ President EFJ General Secretary

rue de la Loi 155, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium 3

Tel.: +32 (0)2 235 22 00; Fax: +32 (0)2 235 22 19
Website: http://europe.ifj.org ; E-Mail: efj@ifj.org