Britain Accused Of Attacking Press Freedom - Again - TruePublica
By Graham vanbergen – The U.K. prides itself
on its past commitment to free expression and press freedom, but as we
found out last year the targeted surveillance of journalists and calls
by Britain’s prime minister, then David Cameron, heavily supported by
Home Secretary, now PM Theresa May, to ban secure messaging indicated a
clear shift toward a more much restrictive environment for the press.
Then of course we have the famed raid by GCHQ on the offices of The
Guardian over the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013. Just last year The
Guardian published a piece about how the government are directly spying on British journalists. “GCHQ’s
bulk surveillance of electronic communications has scooped up emails to
and from journalists working for some of the US and UK’s largest media
organisations.”
In the worst scenario possible for press freedom, the British
government has classified investigative journalists as terrorists when
it comes to surveillance. “New evidence from other UK intelligence
documents revealed by Snowden also shows that a GCHQ information
security assessment listed “investigative journalists” as a threat
alongside terrorists or hackers” – the Guardian article stated.
