So, Greek investigative journalist Kostas Vaxevanis has been arrested under a ‘Violation of privacy’ law. The specifics of the crime with which he is charged are that he published in Hot Doc magazine a list of over 2000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, with words like corruption and tax evasion being used a lot.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website, a legal adviser at the [Greek] Finance Ministry told The New York Times that it was not deemed suitable for publication since an HSBC employee had leaked the document ‘illegally’.
So who is HSBC’s whistleblower and are charges being laid at his / her door? Or – following the journey of this list of alleged tax-evaders – what will become of former French finance minister (and now IMF chief Christine Lagarde) who reportedly gave the list to the Greek government in 2010? Her part in the ultimate publication of the names cannot be denied, owing to the fact that the collection of data actually bears her name: The Lagarde List.
This begs the question, did Mme Lagarde’s then position make the illegal document suddenly legal, or at least render its further dissemination suddenly not illegal? And are the data contained in the list now effectively stolen property?
Then, last Tuesday, October 3, the “Lagarde List” was passed to Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras from PASOK party leader and former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos. The same question applies: are these individuals now also guilty of handling stolen property in addition to any violation of privacy laws?
Next, according to the Financial Times, Yannis Stournaras, the finance minister, told the FT on Sunday that he would pursue the issue of the missing CD with Greek depositors names “as a priority”. (By the way, other sources refer to the list being contained on a USB stick that had languished at the bottom of a secretary’s desk, so this inconsistency raises further doubts about the veracity of its journey and perhaps even its provenance.)
“I first learnt of its existence last week from the newspapers . . . but if SDOE can’t track it down, then we’ll ask our European partners for another copy,” Mr Stournaras said.
By now, the list has become something of a party favour available to whomever ‘in authority’ wants it.
Finally (for now) this violation of privacy law that led to Mr Vaxevanis’s arrest in the first place is an interesting thing in itself… In a paper published by University College London on this law and how it applies to ‘The right to privacy as part of the right to personality’, particular mention is made of the role and function of the media (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/global_law/publications/institute/docs/karakostas.pdf).
And wherever legalese and the hourly charges of M’learned Friends are concerned, these things are never stratightforward, cheap or swift. Added to this, the laws in France, Germany and Switzerland differ on the balancing of right to privacy and legitimate public interest.
In summary, however the affair concludes its progress through the courts will not be quietly done. And while the fiscal rectitude of Greece remains so vigorously debated across the EU it’s fair to say that the case of ‘public interest’ as far as Kostas Vaxevanis’s interpretation of the term as a journalist is concerned seems in little doubt to anybody living and paying taxes in the EU.
Kostas Vaxevanis
Are you interested?
I am.