Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Saturday July 25 2015, @10:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the change-the-law-to-permit-the-crime dept.

The nearly 50-year-old "Wilson Doctrine" that says that UK intelligence agencies will not snoop on the communications of members of Parliament and the House of Lords "cannot work sensibly" in an age of bulk collection, according to James Eadie QC. Eadie, a senior lawyer for Blackstone Chambers who has advised the government, spoke to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which is charged with investigating the recent mass surveillance activities of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ):

Moreover, Eadie said on Friday, the doctrine does not have force in law and cannot impose legal restraints on the agencies.

The convention is named after the former Labour prime minister Harold Wilson, who told MPs in November 1966 that their phones would not be tapped. Tony Blair subsequently extended it to all forms of electronic communications.

The tribunal, which is being asked to rule that the doctrine is legally enforceable, has already heard that GCHQ changed its guidelines in March, when it decided not to apply the convention to members of the devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and members of the European parliament. That revelation has caused fury among members of those institutions: on Friday, the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, wrote to David Cameron asking for urgent clarification. Sturgeon said she accepted spying on MSPs could take place but only in "truly exceptional circumstances involving national security". In the vast majority of cases "the confidentiality of communications between parliamentarians and their constituents is of the utmost importance", she told the prime minister.

In separate news, London's Metropolitan Police Service has admitted to Intercept reporter Ryan Gallagher that an investigation focusing on British journalists working with Edward Snowden's leaked documents is ongoing, about two years after it started:

London's Metropolitan Police Service has admitted it is still carrying out the probe, which is being led by its counterterrorism department, after previously refusing to confirm or deny its existence on the grounds that doing so could be "detrimental to national security."

The disclosure was made by police in a letter sent to this reporter Tuesday, concluding a seven-month freedom of information battle that saw the London force repeatedly attempt to withhold basic details about the status of the case. It reversed its position this week only after an intervention from the Information Commissioner's Office, the public body that enforces the U.K.'s freedom of information laws.

[...] Media lawyer Mark Stephens told The Intercept he believes there is little realistic prospect of a prosecution being brought against any journalists — and said he thinks the authorities are more interested in creating a "chilling effect" to stifle reporting on secretive national security-related issues. "The main reason the investigation is still carrying on is probably to create a degree of uncertainty around journalists and their advisers about what can and cannot be done in terms of carrying documents," said Stephens, who is a partner at London firm Howard Kennedy. "They are trying to shake down and instill fear into journalists and discourage them from exposing things that have to do with national security."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @02:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @02:20PM (#213485)

    The "west" having been profiling itself as "fighters for freedom" are using the same methods as the ones they complained to about (human) rights.

    “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”
    ― Friedrich Nietzsche

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +2  
       Touché=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2