After public criticism the German ministry of economy (Bundeswirtschaftsministerium) is withdrawing plans to discontinue the central yearly statistics on wiretapped telephones. In an article in 'Focus'-magazine the ministry announced its intention to change the next draft of the telecommunications law accordingly. A week later the ministry issued a press release denying the abolishment plan.
According to Focus, the ministry said abolition would improve transparency. Currently, the central statistics are made up out of the raw data from telephone companies, for every phone number, even if they refer to the same phone line, for example with ISDN. The spokeswoman said that the local statistics of the 'Landesjustizverwaltungen' and the statistics of the 'Generalbundesanwaltschaft' were more meaningful, and pointed out that no information would be lost, since every Bundesland would still publish local statistics.
But the plans were opposed by a remarkable coalition of the ministry of justice and journalists who pleaded to keep the central statistics. Obviously, for journalists, comparing surveillance data from each Bundesland is more difficult than from a central statistic. But the resistance from the ministry of justice is noteworthy; they wish to be able to prove wiretapping is used moderately. In 2001, according to Focus, 20.000 telephone numbers were wiretapped.
Press release Ministry of Economy (22.07.2003)
http://www.bmwi.de/Navigation/Presse/pressemitteilungen,did=21418.html
(Contribution by Lars Weitze, CCC)