Press Release from Initiative 278

Today at 10.30 the author and journalist Klaus Werner-Lobo delivered 1.600 signatures from concerned members of the public to the Austrian Parliament

Initiative 278 calls for the Austrian anti-Mafia law 278 to be reformed in order to prevent further misuse in the future against NGOs and their legal campaigning work.

Klaus Werner-Lobo, author of "Uns gehört die Welt!" “The world belongs to us!” was quick to support the initiative:

"Those who sleep in a democracy, wake up in a dictatorship. When politically active people are persecuted as terrorists it is not only a sign of police state repression against inconvenient persons, but also a danger to our democracy and a Belusconianisation of our constitutional state. Should this law be used against animal campaigners then we can expect to see the same treatment for all who stand up for those weaker than themselves, for human rights or the environment. They will be criminalised and robbed of their basic rights.”

A reform of 278 would be simple to effect: A bill of amendment was proposed in Parliament last year and deals with specifically this point

The change to the wording would be to omit the controversial passage which refers to “exerting influence over politics and the economy” as being criteria for describing a criminal organisation. This would rule out the possibility of using the 278 against political lobbying and other forms of legitimate NGO campaigning and leave the “profit motivated” passage to appropriately describe a criminal organisation.

The bill of amendment submitted by MP Albert Steinhauser (Green Party) will be discussed on 30th June in the judicial committee

"Nobody in favour of leaving 278 as it is has been able to give me an example of a scenario whereby an organised crime case could be successfully fought based only on the “exerting influence over politics and the economy” passage. All organised crime is profit motivated and this is why the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime refers to “obtaining financial or other material benefit” as characteristic of organised crime” explained Mike Hartl, spokesperson for Initiative 278. This petition is the first of Initiative 278's actions. Future events and background information can be found on Initiative 278's website: www.278.at (only in German)