The application concerned access to names and amounts of supports of EU-farmsubsidy beneficiaries in the German province of Northrine-Westphalia.

Parts of the data were released in connection with the court appeal in first instance. Read about the story written on the basis of these documents and published in German magazine Stern in 2007 and about the award nomination for the story.

The court appeal of 2nd instance is expected in March 2011.

See case documents below (update expected following court case in March 2011)

30th of March 2005 - first request (doc, 26 KB) Brigitte Alfter to ministry of agriculture in German province NRW

19th of April 2005 - first answer (pdf, 354 KB) from ministry

13th of May 2005 - notice (doc, 25 KB)of appeal to ministry

16th of May 2005 - appeal (doc, 54 KB)to ministry

12th of August 2005 - reminder (doc, 26 KB)to ministry

24th of November 2005 - request for support (doc, 25 KB)to Freedom of Information ombudsperson

21st of December 2005 - answer from Freedom of Information ombudsperson

16th of January 2006 - rejection (pdf, 2.67 MB)from ministry

15th of February 2006 - appeal to administrative court (doc, 95 KB)in Düsseldorf

29th of March 2006 - ministry argues court case should be rejected

20th of June 2006 - answer (pdf, 1.34 MB)by ombudsperson

15th of November 2006 - letter from ombudsperson including comment by ministry (pdf, 1.16 MB)

22nd of November 2006 - thanks (doc, 25 KB)to ombudsperson

5th of April 2007 - next question (doc, 25 KB) to ombudsperson

30th of April 2007 - answer ombudsperson (pdf, 227 KB)

24th of July 2007 - remarks (pdf, 151 KB)to court ahead of hearing

10th of August 2007 - answer ombudsperson (pdf, 112 KB)

24th of August 2007 - court hearing in Düsseldorf at administrative court, decision (pdf, 657 KB), no appeal allowed

8th of Octber 2007 - data (xls, 598 KB)partially granted by ministry (doc, 26 KB)

28th of October 2007 - application for appeal

8th of November 2007 - story published in German newsmagazine Stern

21st of November 2007 - correction (pdf, 37 KB)of data by ministry

23rd of November 2007 - fee (pdf, 74 KB)for data extraction by ministry

25th of November 2007 - ombudsperson closes case (pdf, 37 KB)

21st of March 2007 - story mentioned among top 4 (pdf, 22 KB) of German investigative stories

22nd of March 2007 - Research report in German (doc, 33 KB)

Brigitte Alfter