POLICE forces using spying laws on journalists raises an obvious question – why is this issue so important?
If journalism is considered to be a cornerstone of a healthy democracy, laws protecting the individuals who pass on vital information to newspapers must be robust.
Many of the most important stories have made their way into the public domain thanks to whistleblowers.
The Westminster expenses scandal did not come about by accident, but was exposed by a mole who was angry that politicians were making outrageous allowance claims while soldiers were not being properly equipped.
Chelsea Manning, then a US army soldier, did transparency a service by leaking nearly three-quarters of a million military and diplomatic documents. The material shone a light into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and revealed diplomatic double-dealing.
Manning’s personal sacrifice was huge – she ended up in jail.
The most famous “scoop” of all, The Washington Post’s Watergate expose which proved large-scale criminality in the Nixon White House, was only possible thanks to the leaks of Mark “Deep Throat” Felt, who was the FBI’s associate director.
However, the whistleblowing process is undermined if police forces use surveillance laws to flush out the identity of journalists’ sources.
No-one is arguing that journalists should always be exempt from the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA); if officers believe a reporter has committed a crime, he or she should not be given special treatment.
The issue is whether the RIPA powers should be used to find the source of of embarrassing stories that expose wrongdoing or hypocrisy.
When the story broke last year that police forces had used the RIPA to uncover confidential sources, former Labour home secretary David Blunkett, who introduced the surveillance law, wrote: “Let us be clear: there was never any intention that laws of this kind should be used to obtain information on who, when and why information had been given to journalists in their normal course of duty, where they were clearly following the law of the land and historic professional practice.”
In Scotland, journalists are now in a difficult position.
As we reveal today, Police Scotland breached a new code that requires judicial approval before a source can be identified through the RIPA.
If whistleblowers believe their emails, texts and phone records will be accessed, they will be far less likely to come forward.
By attacking journalism, the single force is also undermining the public’s right to know.
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