The security service AIVD may not tap the telephone of the editor in chief of the Telegraaf newspaper or reporter Jolande van der Graaf, the appeal court in Amsterdam ruled on Tuesday.

The appeal court ruling upholds an earlier ruling by a lower court in July.
The case follows the June arrests of an AIVD employee and her partner, who used to work for the same service. They were arrested on suspicion of supplying state secrets to journalist Van der Graaf.
The case relates to Telegraaf exclusives earlier this year.
In one, the paper accused AIVD staff of simply copying reports about Iran’s alleged weapons of mass destruction from Britain’s M16 and other foreign security services, without any independent verification of the facts. The Netherlands supported the invasion of Iraq partly on the basis of AIVD reports.
The second focuses on claims that threats had been made against the Dalai Lama during his visit to the Netherlands in June.