NRT: GCHQ spies on journalists

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, January 20th, 2015 - 7 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, journalism, Spying - Tags: , , , ,

Reposted from I/S at No Right Turn

GCHQ spies on journalists

According to the spies, their job is protectign the public from “terrorism”. Which obviously is why Britain’s GCHQ has been capturing email traffic to and from journalists:

GCHQ’s bulk surveillance of electronic communications has scooped up emails to and from journalists working for some of the US and UK’s largest media organisations, analysis of documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.

Emails from the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Sun, NBC and the Washington Post were saved by GCHQ and shared on the agency’s intranet as part of a test exercise by the signals intelligence agency.

The disclosure comes as the British government faces intense pressure to protect the confidential communications of reporters, MPs and lawyers from snooping.

The journalists’ communications were among 70,000 emails harvested in the space of less than 10 minutes on one day in November 2008 by one of GCHQ’s numerous taps on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet.

The communications, which were sometimes simple mass-PR emails sent to dozens of journalists but also included correspondence between reporters and editors discussing stories, were retained by GCHQ and were available to all cleared staff on the agency intranet. There is nothing to indicate whether or not the journalists were intentionally targeted.


Even if uninetentional, the threat to press freedom and their ability to do their job of holding those in power to account is obvious. And given that this was a test six years ago, that threat is now almost certainly fully operational.

At this stage its worth remembering that GCHQ considers investigative journalists a “security threat” alongside hackers and terrorists. Two of those groups are really about controlling information released to the public, which really makes you wonder who they’re really protecting: us, or themselves?

7 comments on “NRT: GCHQ spies on journalists ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. aerobubble 1
    20 January 2015 at 5:12 pm

    child molesters become priests and teachers…
    …terrorists journalists and govt employees…

    The question is oversight and keeping politicians mites off the info…

    …as we’ve seen Key putting a mate up in the top job, his party office getting the nod to speak to his ministrial spook…

  2. Anne 2
    20 January 2015 at 7:11 pm

    From the Guardian link”

    • GATEWAY: the “ability to artificially increase traffic to a website”.

    So, GCHQ is assisting Cameron Slater? At Johnny boy’s request?

    At this stage its worth remembering that GCHQ considers investigative journalists a “security threat” alongside hackers and terrorists. Two of those groups are really about controlling information released to the public, which makes you wonder who they’re really protecting: us, or themselves?

    The key to the plot.

  3. disturbed 3
    20 January 2015 at 9:22 pm

    Bet GCHQ are hands off any right wing Government Journalists as their partners in crime.
    Same here for our GCSB.

  4. saveNZ 4
    20 January 2015 at 11:11 pm

    I think the power imbalance is now almost over whelming. Money and Power talks. The growing world imbalance between the estimated 1% that are controlling 99% of all the wealth by next year. Anyone who speaks out is being harassed and silenced including journalists (look at Nicky Hagar) and relentless spying is part of the way to keep order. When 99% become impoverished they start to question their way of life to the new overlords hence the need for mass surveillance.

  5. Jamie 5
    21 January 2015 at 7:04 am

    Off course they are spying on journos – they’re spying on all of us

  6. grumpystilskin 6
    21 January 2015 at 8:54 am

    Come on, even I know to treat all communication as capable of being intercepted..

  7. Rolf 7
    21 January 2015 at 3:29 pm

    Just like to add that Journalists, in my opinion, is an usually stupid bunch that never bother to protect themselves with encryption. As a close at hand example, where is the public encryption key for this paper, and what is the secret non traceable email. Shape up or shut up journalists and writers. Legitimate secrets can be protected.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.