Weber and Saravia v Germany: ECHR 29 Jun 2006

(Admissibility) ‘The first applicant is a freelance journalist who works for various German and foreign newspapers, radio and television stations on a regular basis. In particular, she investigates matters that are subject to the surveillance of the Federal Intelligence Service, notably armaments, preparations for war, drug and arms trafficking and money laundering. In order to carry out her investigations, she regularly travels to different countries in Europe and South and Central America, where she also meets the persons she wants to interview.
The second applicant, an employee of Montevideo City Council, submitted that he took messages for the first applicant when she was on assignments, both from her telephone and from his own telephone. He then transmitted these messages to wherever she was.’ They alleged that certain provisions of the Fight against Crime Act amending the G 10 Act disregarded their fundamental rights, notably the right to secrecy of telecommunications, the right to self-determination in the sphere of information, freedom of the press and the right to effective recourse to the courts.
‘In its case-law on secret measures of surveillance, the Court has developed the following minimum safeguards that should be set out in statute law in order to avoid abuses of power: (1) the nature of the offences which may give rise to an interception order; (2) a definition of the categories of people liable to have their telephones tapped; (3) a limit on the duration of telephone tapping; (4) the procedure to be followed for examining, using and storing the data obtained; (5) the precautions to be taken when communicating the data to other parties; and (6) the circumstances in which recordings may or must be erased or the tapes destroyed.’

Judges:

Zupancic P

Citations:

(2008) 46 EHRR SE5, [2006] ECHR 1173, 54934/00

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Cited by:

CitedMarper v United Kingdom; S v United Kingdom ECHR 4-Dec-2008
(Grand Chamber) The applicants complained that on being arrested on suspicion of offences, samples of their DNA had been taken, but then despite being released without conviction, the samples had retained on the Police database.
Held: . .
CitedNicklinson and Another, Regina (on The Application of) SC 25-Jun-2014
Criminality of Assisting Suicide not Infringing
The court was asked: ‘whether the present state of the law of England and Wales relating to assisting suicide infringes the European Convention on Human Rights, and whether the code published by the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to . .
CitedPrivacy International, Regina (on The Application of) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal and Others SC 15-May-2019
The Court was asked whether the actions of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal were amenable to judicial review: ‘what if any material difference to the court’s approach is made by any differences in context or wording, and more particularly the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights

Updated: 23 November 2022; Ref: scu.278521