UK

2013

  

A chill over British press

A prime minister says a newspaper has damaged national security and calls for its editor to be brought before Parliament; his government tells the same paper there has been “enough” debate on an issue and sends its security officials into the paper’s offices to smash discs containing journalistic material; lawmakers call for the editor’s prosecution…

Read More ›

Take this survey on digital safety, then take these steps

It is an extraordinarily difficult time to be a journalist. Nearly every month, the digital security landscape shifts–new surveillance concerns are unearthed and freshly drafted laws are introduced that seek to curb freedom of expression under the guise of national security.

Read More ›

British journalists concerned by regulation, hostile climate

As Alan Rusbridger appears Tuesday before the Home Affairs committee of the U.K. Parliament to give evidence regarding the Guardian’s coverage of surveillance activities by the U.S. and U.K. governments, British journalists and analysts say that newspaper’s legal troubles are worrying in large part because they come against the backdrop of increased regulation and scrutiny…

Read More ›

Greenwald wants to return to US, but not yet

Glenn Greenwald would like to go home to the United States, at least for a visit. But the Guardian journalist and blogger is afraid to do so. He still has material and unpublished stories from his contacts with fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden that he believes U.S. authorities would love to get their hands on.  The…

Read More ›

Solidarity in the face of surveillance

One way for journalists to build more secure newsrooms and safer networks would be for more of them to learn and practice digital hygiene and information security. But that’s not enough. We also need journalists to stand together across borders, not just as an industry, but as a community, against government surveillance. The Obama administration,…

Read More ›

Groups call for EU action against mass surveillance

Recent revelations of American and British mass surveillance of digital communications have triggered an intense mobilization of European free speech and civil liberties organizations, which have launched an online petition calling on leaders of the European Union to halt the practice. The #dontspyonme campaign was presented by Index on Censorship, an independent, British, free speech…

Read More ›

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, where some digital monitoring takes place. (Reuters)

In Woolwich aftermath, UK revives ‘snooper’s charter’

Key elements of the British Communications Data Bill, known as the “snooper’s charter” by its critics, have returned to the political agenda in the month since two suspected jihadis fatally stabbed Lee Rigby, a 23-year-old soldier, in London’s southeast Woolwich district. The bill, which would have given police and security services greater ability to monitor…

Read More ›

A burnt out car blocks Dee Street in east Belfast in January. Threats against journalists have increased since a wave of protests early this year. (Reuters/Cathal McNaughton)

Threats to Northern Irish journalists on the rise

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has informed a Belfast-based reporter that dissident republican groups, opposed to the peace process, have issued a death threat against her, the British National Union of Journalists said this week. The threat came after the journalist published a story in a local Sunday newspaper claiming an Irish republican group…

Read More ›

In revolt, freelancers establish Frontline Freelance Register

Finally, there is an organization for freelancers run by freelancers, and it could not come at a more opportune time. As anyone who has been one knows, being a freelance conflict reporter, in particular, can be tricky business.

Read More ›

Responding to Hacked Off

Some years back during a visit to the Gambia–the West African nation ruled by a thin-skinned and mercurial president, Yahya Jammeh–I holed up in the sweltering Interior Ministry and pressed officials to release imprisoned journalists and ease up on the country’s brutal media crackdown. The officials resisted, arguing that the press in Gambia was “reckless…

Read More ›

2013