U.K. Police Investigation of Snowden Leak Journalists Enters Fourth Year
Edward Snowden
A secretive British police investigation focusing on journalists who have worked with Edward Snowden’s leaked documents is still active more than four years after it was launched  The Intercept has learned.
The disclosure that the probe remains active prompted criticism on Monday from the National Union of Journalists  the U.K.’s largest journalists’ organization. Sarah Kavanagh  a spokesperson for the group  said that news reports based on the  Snowden  documents had exposed unlawful covert surveillance activities in the public interest.
“The media are often the only group in society able to reveal the intelligence and security forces have exceeded their legitimate powers and remit ” Kavanagh said. “The Met Police should be condemned for keeping journalists under investigation because they worked on the  Snowden  leaks. The investigation should be halted immediately. Journalism is not a crime.”
The origins of the investigation can be traced back to May 2013  when  Snowden   a National Security Agency contractor  turned over a cache of classified documents about government surveillance to journalists  including Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald  who was at that time working for British news organization The Guardian. Among the documents were details about mass surveillance programs operated by the U.K.’s largest spy agency  Government Communications Headquarters  or GCHQ.
In August 2013  detectives from the Metropolitan Police used a counterterrorism law to detain and interrogate David Miranda  Greenwald’s partner  while he was passing through London’s largest airport. Miranda was carrying a batch of encrypted  Snowden  documents to aid Greenwald’s reporting on the files. The police seized Miranda’s possessions – including a mobile phone  laptop  camera  and flash drives – and began a criminal investigation.
British authorities argued that publishing the  Snowden  files was itself a terrorist act  thereby explicitly conflating journalism with terrorism. Prior to Miranda’s arrival in London  a memo authored by the Metropolitan Police and domestic spy agency MI5 was circulated to U.K. border entry points. It asserted that “the disclosure [of the Snowden documents]  or threat of disclosure  is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism.”
[TGT] leaked documents is still active more than four years after it was launched  The Intercept has learned.
The disclosure that the probe remains active prompted criticism on Monday from the National Union of Journalists  the U.K.’s largest journalists’ organization. Sarah Kavanagh  a spokesperson for the group  said that news reports based on the  Snowden  documents had exposed unlawful covert surveillance activities in the public interest.
“The media are often the only group in society able to reveal the intelligence and security forces have exceeded their legitimate powers and remit ” Kavanagh said. “The Met Police should be condemned for keeping journalists under investigation because they worked on the  Snowden  leaks. [TGT] should be halted immediately. Journalism is not a crime.”
The origins of [TGT] can be traced back to May 2013  when  Snowden   a National Security Agency contractor  turned over a cache of classified documents about government surveillance to journalists  including Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald  who was at that time working for British news organization The Guardian. Among the documents were details about mass surveillance programs operated by the U.K.’s largest spy agency  Government Communications Headquarters  or GCHQ.
In August 2013  detectives from the Metropolitan Police used a counterterrorism law to detain and interrogate David Miranda  Greenwald’s partner  while he was passing through London’s largest airport. Miranda was carrying a batch of encrypted  Snowden  documents to aid Greenwald’s reporting on the files. The police seized Miranda’s possessions – including a mobile phone  laptop  camera  and flash drives – and began a criminal investigation.
British authorities argued that publishing the  Snowden  files was itself a terrorist act  thereby explicitly conflating journalism with terrorism. Prior to Miranda’s arrival in London  a memo authored by the Metropolitan Police and domestic spy agency MI5 was circulated to U.K. border entry points. It asserted that “the disclosure [of the Snowden documents]  or threat of disclosure  is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism.”