The administration of the German Federal Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) must grant a journalist from the daily newspaper “Die Welt” access to reports and elaborations of the Scientific Services and Languange Services that had been prepared for the former federal minister and member of parliament Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and which he had used for private purposes of his Ph.D. dissertation. The Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) confirmed a corresponding first-instance ruling of the Administrative Court of Berlin after the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin had dismissed the action in the second instance (References: Federal Administrative Court BVerwG 7 C 1.14 – Decision of 25 June 2015, Administrative Court VG Berlin 2 K 185.11 – Decision of 14 September 2012).
The journalist of “Welt”, represented by Raue LLP, had applied for access to eight documents by the Scientific Service and the Language Service of the German Federal Parliament in connection with the accusation of plagiarism against Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. However, the administration of the German Federal Parliament refused access to the files. In their opinion the Freedom of Information Act (IFG) which grants access to information from public authorities does not apply to these areas of the German Federal Parliament’s administration.
The Federal Administrative Court did not follow this argumentation. The German Federal Parliament is, as far as expert opinions and other preliminary work of the Scientific Services and Language Services, an authority with a duty to inform. In this regard it fulfills administrative tasks. The fact that the members of parliament use these documents for their parliamentary activities does not justify different conclusions.