Wrestling with his fear about Googling the composition of a carbon dioxide bomb after hearing of a failed bombing at LAX, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
journalist, Peter Galison highlights one of the threats of mass
surveillance to journalistic practice, “The knowledge that I might be
walking into a security word search had been enough to make me
hesitate.”
Following Edward Snowden’s leaks outlining the capabilities of
intelligence agencies around the world to monitor, track and collate
private online communications this moment of hesitation before tackling a
story has become a major concern to journalists globally.
Pen International surveyed 772 fiction and non-fiction writers and
found out that more than 1 in 3 writers in so-called free countries
(34%) said they had avoided writing or speaking on a particular topic
following the NSA revelations.
While Ryan Gallagher of The Intercept states “self-censorship is never the only available option” he acknowledges that his practices have changed:
“In the post-Snowden environment I definitely use encryption tools
much more to communicate with people, mainly because more of my
colleagues and contacts have now adopted these tools. It’s no longer a
niche thing…the Snowden revelations were a big wake-up call for people.”
Encryption and anonymity software
have emerged as the primary set of tools available to journalists to
protect themselves, their stories and their sources. Indeed in the light
of the leaked information, they have taken on added significance; the
ability to depend on robust communication security may be the difference
between coverage and self-censorship.
