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Alan Rusbridger: "David Miranda, schedule 7 and the danger that all reporters now face", The Guardian, 19 August 2013.
The nine-hour detention of David Miranda (partner of Glenn Greenwald) at Heathrow airport reinforces the widely-held perception that the UK and US governments are trying to scare reporters away from covering stories on intelligence leaks. "That perception," writes Alan Rusbridger, "is right." Over the past few months, says Rusbridger, UK government officials have been demanding the return or destruction of leaked materials, culminating in the bizarre spectacle of "two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement" so as to ensure, according to them, that the Chinese (!) would never get hold of the sensitive information. This, insists Rusbridger, is journalism under attack. How long will it be until the State's growing infrastructure of surveillance makes true journalism virtually impossible? |
