Whitehouse tried to stop the Guardian from further publishing on Snowden material and went as far as destroying hard disks under supervision of the British Secret Service
Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian today revealed that he has been summoned to meetings with 'senior government officials speaking on behalf of the prime minister". They wanted him to hand over or destroy the material from Edward Snowden.
When the Guardian didn't give in and told the "shadowy Whitehall figures" that – like the secret services – modern journalism could pick jurisdictions which would allow reporting, the answer was: You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more.
The news paper already reported most of the stories from their US office as whatever you may think of Washingtons meddling, press freedom is much more sacred than in the UK. With Glenn Greenwald living in Brazil there were sufficient options to keep publishing.
A clue the British government ignored and they made the Guardian decide between 'prior restraint' (also known as censorship before publishing) and letting the secret service destroy a few hard disks.
one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian's long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents. "We can call off the black helicopters," joked one as we swept up the remains of a MacBook Pro.
Still as a symbol destroying hard disks in the basement of the Guardian is just as worse as burning books on government orders (and just as effective which offers some solace 🙂
Should the Guardian have made a big deal out of it or is the pragmatic approach the wisest? Can freedom of press exists when threatening with censorship is allowed?
as an aside: maybe there was a gag order involved on the destruction of the disks. The editor is exceptionally brief in the reader comments:.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters
#NSA #Snowden #PressFreedom #Politics
interesting thanks for sharing
I even wrote it 🙂 +Jackelyn Tildesley
Simply unbelievable that this kind of thing happens in today's age. Incidentally, as I was researching the "Carlsbad Decrees" yesterday, diving into the censorship laws and Metternich's love of absolute control, I had the uncomfortable feeling that things may be rather similar today. But I did not harp on it, don't want to get stuck in the "paranoid" box.
… and then comes this.
I rest my case.
Publish everything.
They should have cried foul from the highest tower, and kept crying out about this abuse of the freedom of press till everyone in the country took notice
1. Governments have to protect National Interests.
2. The Press has to protect Public Interests.
3. Conflict.
4. Now it depends all on the Public if it gives a Shit about it's own Freedoms.
Tried to share your post +Max Huijgen and failed…
Thanks for telling me +Dick Kegels Made a mistake: now you can share it again.
+Dieter Mueller and outside of Guardian readers the answer seems no, but I understood even the Daily Mail published about the arrest of David Miranda so maybe things are changing….
Busily recommending everyone read Noam Chomsky – it's exactly the kind of stuff your govt's would rather you weren't aware of
Well, Greenwald will probably go on publishing bits by bits.. this is just one of those episodes of the play that is played out. As far as I can see, everybody is quite awake… which is probably how it's ment to be.
This has always happened, but nowadays the security services are 'open', and brag about their deeds when it suits them.
I guess that's me marked.
+Dieter Mueller , there are no such thing as "national interests".
There is but 'National Interests' are actually just the interests of the Elite tier respun as somehow being for 'your benefit'
I Tweeted this 12 hours ago: "You think you know how far the tyranny has advanced @ggreenwald @arusbridger but you've no idea. Expect anything from MI5/NSA/CIA, no limit." https://twitter.com/2045singularity/status/369594708378411008
Remember the Time journalist who recently declared he would love to report on the Assanage drone strike? The shocking thing is not his statement (http://rt.com/news/assange-time-grunwald-twitter-624/) but that such a scenario is actually possible. Would you be surprised if Assange was assassinated? What about Snowden? Or Greewald? Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the US assassinated the entire Guardian staff via bombing their offices.
Don't forget MI6.
Thank you for the writeup. Definitely worth a reshare.
There is no limit to what the secuirty services will do +Matthew Graybosch but there is a character limit on Twitter 🙂 – yes MI6 too, and perhaps more spying departments, although these days they are all pretty much the same, they are all in bed with each other. Is the NSA really different to the CIA or MI6/MI5?
I am now appreciating India more. Despite us being a bigger victim of terror and greater reason to look into our internet activities, there is greater press freedom here (problem here is with the press which is full of corrupt elements) and our government is actually considering legislations which would strengthen privacy.
Greenwald is now playing a personal game, they made him do it. If so far it was a matter of principle, now things are going to change. I expect a crackdown, I fear it even. Let's hope I am wrong.
Quoting this Guardian article comment to emphasize the important call for action:
StopGMO said:
"Free speech must be maintained for ALL of us, not just 'reporters', so while we care about this abuse, make sure you are not just supporting 'reporters' rights, but speak up for your OWN. Do not let the greasy UN get it's hands on the internet, and speak up for your rights, and the rights of reporters to furnish the truth."
"All two of the reporters who still bother to do that."
I remember what Richard M. Stallman said: the fight for the future is now, if we don't fight now when the public is awake, a time will come when it's too late to fight this without bloodshed.
So yeah, The Guardian should wake up every living thing to this.
.
More than a year ago Greenwald published the story about Laura Poitras. While she was not detained for the maximum time, she was detained almost every time she entered back to the US.
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/08/u_s_filmmaker_repeatedly_detained_at_border/
+Luis Carvalho I think the 'trouble' with Snowden is that he is rather smart and knows how the agencies work. If you take a look how the story unfolds over time, the reactions of the agencies were very well calculated with the publications over time to have a maximum affect and expose the lies of the agencies about how they really work.
I don't think this story is over for some time. (And the agencies know that.)
No need to fight for privacy because we lost that ages ago, there is something very different going on, which needs our attention much more: Climate change… and I don't mean Global warming.
Amazing. Shit hit the fan, I'd say.
How very disappointing.
Thanks for posting this, +Max Huijgen. I wanted to read about this but didn't have time before.
If you really want to support the Guardian then subscribe to it – or at least comment on their Site so they get the Traffic and make some Money from it …
http://subscribe.theguardian.com/
Good point +Dieter Mueller and it's actually my other concern. The Guardian is becoming an internet news paper as the printed edition doesn't sell well. Where would we be without the Guardian?
For more Insights into the British Intelligence I recommend reading & watching this closely:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER
Sad to see the Telegraph comment on the story accusing the Guardian of theater for page views http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100231683/miranda-greenwald-and-snowden-the-guardian-is-overplaying-its-hand/#disqus_thread
Are we heading towards a modern "Fahrenheit 451" situation, destroying hard disks etc.?
Distraction, Max, all distraction. http://www. Ice Age Precursors 1 – Ice Age Climate Normal Climate