More than a thousand passages blacked out: Multipolar publishes acquitted RKI protocols in the original
The protocols of the crisis unit of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which have been released by our magazine, are now made accessible to everyone. The more than 200 documents have been blackened to a considerable extent by the RKI. We are currently suing against the blackening. We invite all interested journalists to co-research.
As Multipolar already reported on the basis of the papers kept secret so far, the tightening of the risk assessment from "moderate" to "high" announced by the RKI in March 2020 was based on all lockdown measures and court rulings - contrary to what has been claimed so far, was not based on a technical assessment of the institute, but on the political instruction of an external actor - whose name is blackened in the protocols.
For a further thorough evaluation of the more than 200 protocols with a total volume of over 1,000 pages, the cooperation of other journalists and researchers is now required. The protocols cover the period from January 2020 to April 2021, since our application under the Freedom of Information Act, on which the later complaint was based, was made in May 2021. The application was:
In accordance with § 1 IFG, Art. 10 ECHR, in the name and in the attached power of attorney (...), we hereby request access in the form of the preparation of copies of all information, regardless of the embodiment,
- All minutes, agendas, participant lists and other notes of the RKI Corona crisis team since its foundation - according to RKI on 6.1.2020 - until 30.4.2021;
- All documents, notes and correspondence (except drafts) of the authority that deal with the planning and convening of the crisis unit in the run-up to the first meeting;
- In particular, all documents and notes (except drafts) that deal with the change of the risk assessment on 17.3.2020 from "moderate" to "high", including correspondence within the RKI as well as between the RKI and the Federal Ministry of Health and, if necessary, other authorities of the Federal Government.
After non-response and bringing a lawsuit, a long tug-of-war followed by our lawyers of the law firm Partsch und Partner with the lawyers of the RKI of the law firm Raue. After the exchange of numerous pleadings by both sides with the Administrative Court of Berlin, this admonished the opposing side in February 2023 to come to an end with the processing and announced that it would "probably grant the lawsuit comprehensively because of the passage-exact presentation of grounds for exclusion that had not yet taken place".
As a result, the RKI presented the protocols heavily blackened in April 2023 - apparently also in order to avoid a verdict of the court. An estimated more than a thousand passages were blackened. The law firm Raue sent a PDF document of more than 1,000 pages, in which each and every one of these blackenings - mostly in a formula - is justified.
The blackening goes so far that sometimes even the simple participation of Minister of Health Jens Spahn in a crisis unit meeting is concealed (Protocol of 3. February 2020, blackening of the first name on the list of participants), although even the ministry itself made its participation public at the time (with photo) on Twitter.
In July 2023, we sued against the blackenings. The lawyers of the RKI insisted on their appropriateness to the court in September, to which our lawyers responded in November. The other side objected again in December. In January 2024, the court finally announced a date for the oral hearing and taking evidence. This is scheduled for Monday, the 6th. May 2024 at 9:30 a.m. in the office building of the Administrative Court of Berlin, Kirchstraße 7. (Aktenzeichen VG 2 K 278/21) (Update 29.4.: The trial is at the request of the RKI lawyers on the 8th July has been moved.)
Our editorial team had originally planned to wait with the publication of the minutes until a judgment of the court was available. However, after the court date was announced at the beginning of this year, we decided to bring forward the publication. We hope that the court will decide in the sense of the greatest possible transparency, so that at best the less or no longer blackened protocols will be available in May - which would be considered an essential step towards the further, overdue, reappraisal of the corona crisis.
Until then, we invite all interested journalists and researchers to thoroughly sift the material and share their findings.
In conclusion: The procedure has so far cost our magazine about 15,000 euros. We finance it from the small donations of our readers - and are grateful for further support.
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