When Edward Snowden revealed the spying the US government had been conducting, it send shock-waves through the entire world. It was revealed that the US government had handed over data to some of its allies, including the UK. As in the US the revelations have upset the government greatly as now it has been forced to defend this horrifying and unnecessary invasion of privacy. Recent revelations show that the UK government has been cracking down on journalism to show its anger at Snowden, Glen Greenwald (the reporter who revealed the story) and the Guardian in which Greenwald published.
The UK government has attempted to scare journalists out of doing real reporting. The story starts in Berlin, where American journalist Laura Poitras is currently living. Poitras, like Greenwald, has revealed many cases of government misconduct when it comes to spying on its own citizens. This has forced Poitras to move to Germany to avoid the US government stealing her data that she is using in her new documentaries. Recently she has been working in conjunction with Glen Greenwald on government spying. So last week Greenwald's Brazilian partner, David Miranda, was visiting her and on his way home to Brazil, he passed through Heathrow Airport. This is where the story gets interesting; Miranda was held for nine hours by British police and had all his electronics seized. The legal justification for the nine hour detention? Schedule 7 of the 2000 Terrorism Act. Seriously, the Terrorism Act. What Miranda, Greenwald, Poitras and Snowden have been doing is not terrorism, it is journalism.
You may not like what they leak, you may not value their contribution, but you cannot possibly believe that what they are doing is terrorism. That is insane.
The Home Office and Number 10 have claimed that neither of them authorised the detention, but had prior warning that it was going to happen. The White House has also claimed that although the British informed them of their intention to detain Miranda, that they did not pressure the British in any way to do so.
I seriously dislike the current UK government, and the attitudes to privacy of previous UK governments, but I never thought that they would try and intimidate the press like they did here. I always prided myself in the fact that we had Jeremy Paxman and not Wolf Blitzer, that we had the Guardian and the BBC. Now I realise that government pressure on journalism is just as real as it is in the US, and I fear what it may do to our democracy.
Remember Cameron, journalism does NOT equal terrorism.
The UK government has attempted to scare journalists out of doing real reporting. The story starts in Berlin, where American journalist Laura Poitras is currently living. Poitras, like Greenwald, has revealed many cases of government misconduct when it comes to spying on its own citizens. This has forced Poitras to move to Germany to avoid the US government stealing her data that she is using in her new documentaries. Recently she has been working in conjunction with Glen Greenwald on government spying. So last week Greenwald's Brazilian partner, David Miranda, was visiting her and on his way home to Brazil, he passed through Heathrow Airport. This is where the story gets interesting; Miranda was held for nine hours by British police and had all his electronics seized. The legal justification for the nine hour detention? Schedule 7 of the 2000 Terrorism Act. Seriously, the Terrorism Act. What Miranda, Greenwald, Poitras and Snowden have been doing is not terrorism, it is journalism.
You may not like what they leak, you may not value their contribution, but you cannot possibly believe that what they are doing is terrorism. That is insane.
The Home Office and Number 10 have claimed that neither of them authorised the detention, but had prior warning that it was going to happen. The White House has also claimed that although the British informed them of their intention to detain Miranda, that they did not pressure the British in any way to do so.
I seriously dislike the current UK government, and the attitudes to privacy of previous UK governments, but I never thought that they would try and intimidate the press like they did here. I always prided myself in the fact that we had Jeremy Paxman and not Wolf Blitzer, that we had the Guardian and the BBC. Now I realise that government pressure on journalism is just as real as it is in the US, and I fear what it may do to our democracy.
Remember Cameron, journalism does NOT equal terrorism.
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| David Miranda (left) arriving in Brazil after his nine hour detention meeting his partner Glen Greenwald (right) source: www.mirror.co.uk |
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