'How good are you at keeping a secret?,' Kurt Strand of DR2's news show Deadline initiated his interview with guest Jakob Scharf, Director General of PET, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, during the Danish Media Festival 2008. Kurt Strand is the 'Tim Sebastian' of The Danish Broadcasting Company/DR.
'I must be good at keeping secrets. So I am,' was his response. What else could he really answer?
Jakob Scharf went on to reveal what could be revealed, that the three priorities of the service was to be responsible to the public, to create trust with the population, and to ensure open doors and co-operation from other public services and authorities. Most of it was a show case, but he did explain about the security levels on PET's homepage and answer questions about civil rights in connection with terror files.
He explained to the present journalists in the audience that whenever he reads expressions in the papers like 'sources within PET state that...' - it just serves to create confusion. Whenever he expresses anything himself, or anyone else from PET for that matter, it has already been cleared. No mystique. No paradoxes. Just secrets.
For further information, see: http://www.pet.dk/
Deadline: http://www.dr.dk/dr2/deadline2230