Press Council: Weltwoche allowed to name the undercover investigators
This was the first time the Press Council had addressed the issue of undercover agents from the Federal Criminal Police (BKP). The Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) had filed a complaint against *Die Weltwoche* because the newspaper had disclosed the names and positions of three federal criminal police officers in an article.
The three police officers had worked in the FCO's undercover investigations unit, one as chief and another as deputy. Fedpol complained that the criminals could no longer work as undercover investigators after they were exposed in the article "The Roduner case. Irre Führung, amtliche Delinquenz" published by Weltwoche on January 22, 2009. The weekly magazine defended itself by claiming that two of the three were under investigation for forgery of documents, which they had allegedly committed in office. It was therefore allowed to mention their names. The Press Council largely agreed with the editors and dismissed Fedpol's complaint. Anyone who acts in an important state function in the dark room of undercover investigations must behave impeccably and in accordance with the law. If they fail to do so, they may be outed and publicly criticized. The Press Council also assumed that the two accused bosses were not acting as undercover investigators, but in an administrative capacity.
