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Alert

Secret services arrest former minister who exposed phone tapping

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has learned that members of the special services entered the apartment of freelance journalist Sylwester Latkowski in the early hours of 30 August 2007 in order to arrest former interior minister Janusz Kaczmarek in connection with a leak about an anti-corruption operation.

Kaczmarek, who was fired as interior minister at the start of the month, testified on 22 August to the parliament's secret services commission that the phones of journalists critical of the government were tapped on the orders of justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

"Today's secret service raid on the home of a journalist as he and a colleague were preparing an article for 'Polityka' on the tapping of the phones of journalists and opposition politicians is disturbing," Reporters Without Borders said. "We call on the authorities to establish a special parliamentary commission to look into the tapping of journalists' phones."

Latkowski said he was stunned by the raid on his apartment. "I am afraid, I no longer have any confidence in state institutions," he said.