TWO CONTRASTING approaches to information book-ended the week in Berlin.
On Monday, the interior ministry admitted it had lost 332 files in the last decade, files with contents so secret that apparently no one knew what was in them.
Replying to an opposition query, the ministry added that, in the last three years, nearly 3,200 secret files had been destroyed rather than deposited in the federal archive. However, this morning's passage of a new law through the upper house, the Bundesrat, ends the week with a demonstration of how liberally the German government can deal with information - once it isn't its own.
The law in question beefs up the powers of Germany's federal criminal police (BKA) - a must, the government argues, in the age of international terrorism.
But civil rights groups, journalists, lawyers, doctors and other professionals have said the measures undermine constitutional protection for their professions and endanger freedom of speech.
The Bill gives investigators enhanced powers to tap a suspect's phone, film their home and even conduct remote clandestine searches of their computer through the use of so-called "Trojan Horse" software.
In addition, the law strips journalists, doctors and other professional groups of their automatic right to protect the secrecy of professional conversations.
Instead, investigators may monitor their phone calls and computer use if it is in the "public interest". Only priests, politicians and defence attorneys will continue to enjoy full protection from such surveillance.
In this week's Der Spiegelmagazine, editors of Germany's main media outlets were in agreement about the law's potentially negative consequences. "There are many ways to hinder investigative journalism and the simplest is: scare off the informants, make them afraid of the consequences," said Bascha Mika, editor of the left-wing Tageszeitung.
Wolfgang Krach, editor-in-chief of the Süddeutsche Zeitungnewspaper, said: "This isn't about a particular profession seeking self-serving privilege for itself, rather that journalists preserve their constitutional rights and their right to do their job unhindered."
A leading computer hacker group, the Chaos Computer club, claims the new law will weaken the strict separation of police and secret police and create a "de facto secret police of the kind that last existed in east Germany".
This kind of reaction is not unusual in Germany, where experiences of the Stasi and the Third Reich Gestapo have created a deep-seated suspicion of state-controlled surveillance and the concept of preventative measures.
Even before it passed the upper house today, the Bill faced constitutional challenges by several civil rights groups.
After failing in its first passage through the Bundesrat, the government is confident it will pass on the second attempt after adding a provision allowing online searches only with a judge's warrant.
The government dismisses the concerns as unfounded and overblown. "We are turning the screw a little," said Dieter Wiefelsputz, Social Democrat spokesman for interior affairs. "But Germany is a constitutional state today and it will remain so tomorrow."