Supreme Administrative Court hears journalist’s disclosure demand for Stasi list

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The Supreme Administrative Court has begun proceedings in a case in which a journalist is demanding the publication of a list held by the Finnish Security Police (SUPO), containing the names of 18 Finns believed to have had contacts with the former East German secret police, the Stasi.
      At Friday’s session it came out that SUPO had asked German officials for permission to release the names on the list.
      SUPO deputy director Petri Knape testified on Friday that SUPO had asked German intelligence officials, who had provided the list, if the names could be released to the public, but the Germans refused.
     
According to Knape, simply asking about the issue was an exceptional move, as it could have put SUPO in a questionable light as a partner. Nevertheless, SUPO asked, and got a negative answer.
      “There have been no changes to the conditions of an exchange of information”, Knape said.
      According to SUPO, the enquiry was made because public debate on the matter had reached “exceptional” proportions.
     
Calling for the the release of the names on the so-called Tiitinen list (named after Seppo Tiitinen, former head of SUPO), is Susanna Reinboth, a journalist at the commercial television network Nelonen.
      Reinboth suspects that SUPO had asked the Germans about general guidelines, and not this specific case. Knape denied this.
      “We do not have the slightest reason to suspect that the other side would have changed its view of the confidentiality of the list”, Knape said in court.
     
Reinboth testified that a representative of the German government had given the green light to the publication of the list.
      In an interview published in Helsingin Sanomat in 2007, the Ambassador of Germany at the time, Hanns Schumacher, said that publishing or not publishing the list was a matter for the Finns to decide, and that Germany has nothing to do with the matter.
      The Supreme Administrative Court promised on Friday that a decision on the publication of the Tiitinen list will come out in a couple of months.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Interior Minister wary of publication of Security Police Stasi list (4.9.2007)
  Ex-President Koivisto urges publication of Security Police Stasi list (3.9.2007)
  Debate over disclosure of Stasi material heats up as Security Police director resigns (30.7.2007)
  Court rejects Alpo Rusi call to publish Stasi lists (26.4.2007)

See also:
  Did I spy... (30.5.2000)

Helsingin Sanomat