Prosecutor to stop spying on journalists without court approval; Lawyers also had enough

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has adjusted its rules for spying on journalists’ conversations with suspects. From May 1, the authorities can only listen in on a conversation between a journalist and a suspect if an examining magistrate approves it beforehand, NOS reports. Lawyers have also had enough of being watched by the authorities, especially when talking to their clients in high-security prisons, law firm Ficq & Partners told AD.

The reason behind the OM’s change in policy is a conversation that reporters from De Correspondent had in 2022 with the three directions of the Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie about what would later become known as the dodgy face mask deal. Last year, it turned out that the OM had tapped that conversation because of a criminal investigation into Sywert van Lienden and his business partners. De Correspondent chief editor Rob Wijnberg considered it a violation of journalistic source protection and threatened to take the matter to court.

At the time, the OM argued that it was spying on the suspects, not the journalists and that the prosecutors only found out shortly in advance that journalists would be involved in the conversation. The OM now says that “the course of events has raised questions among journalists,” and so it will tighten the rules.

Before a prosecutor can listen in on a conversation involving a journalist, they must get permission from the examining magistrate, the chief public prosecutor, and the Board of Attorneys General.

Lawyers have also had enough of being watched by the authorities, law firm Ficq & Partners told AD after a recent incident in which prison employees monitored their lawyer Juriaan de Vries while he met with a client - one of the convicts in the Marengo trial.

According to the law firm, De Vries was having a confidential conversation with his client when the prison guards suddenly pulled him out of the room to ask if he was okay, describing his behavior in the room - including that he was pacing and had raised his voice - as a reason for concern. That clearly shows that they were monitoring him, the law firm said.

Ficq & Partners has therefore decided that its employees will no longer talk to prison staff when they visit their clients in prison. They will also communicate with their clients even more circumspectly than before.