Top Media Outlets files stolen by the Government Communication Headquarters
BY: Nalie Frederick
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an American agency responsible for monitoring, collecting, translating and analyzing data and information globally for foreign and counterintelligence purposes.
In simpler words the NSA is responsible for protecting government information systems and communication. The Government Communication Headquarters is a British security and intelligence organization who reports communication and information to the British government. The GCHQ is invading the privacy of others by hacking into emails, spying on people and doing so without their consent and getting away with it.
In 2013 the NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the GCHQ was collecting vast amounts of online and telephone data from around the world. Top media outlets such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, NBC, The Washington Post as well as other U. S. Citizens emails were collected by the GCHQ and posted on the agency’s intranet. The GCHQ had access to top internet companies like Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Apple.
In November 2008, the emails were part of the 70,000 collected in less than 10 minutes by the GCHQ’s numerous taps on the cables that make up the backbone of the internet. Investigations of these emails by the GCHQ lead to more useful conversations between reporters and editors who went into detail about stories they discussed.
Freedom of Expression Law
The freedom of expression law can be evaluated in this case as over 100 editors have been protesting at snooping on Journalists and their communication. Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), has been used without a warrant for years to get access to journalists’ mail, phone records etc. Ripa does not need the police or any judges’ permission to get access to the phone records. Instead, they may easily get access from a staff member of that same organization that they are not affiliated with. Also I will evaluate the first amendment and ones right to privacy.
A journalist’s job of getting information for the public can have him/her associated with helping terrorism and hackers. GCHQ director Robert Hannigan claimed that US technology companies are a part of a command and control network terrorist and criminals choose to use. The U.S. Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of a record about an individual from a system of records absent the written consent of the individual, unless the disclosure is pursuant to one of twelve statutory exceptions. The Act also provides individuals with a means by which to seek access to and amendment of their records, and sets forth various agency record-keeping requirements. (The United States department of Justice, 2015)
Losing Control of Your Own Image
Take the case Arrington v. New York Times where the editor of the latter in chief took a stroll to a busy street and took random pictures of people just going about their daily life. He focused on a black man he believed would be the perfect image for a story in the magazine. The story was about the black middle class moving up and he never felt the need to ask the man, Arrington, for permission to use his image. Arrington found out about the image from neighbors and coworkers who felt as he misrepresented their class as a whole. He felt like his image was being misused in this story once he had read it and his peers started to feel betrayed by him. The times won the case due to Arringtons’ failure to keep up financially.
A campaign has since sparked with more than 6,000 people who have already signed a petiotion to find out if the GCHQ has illegally spied on them. This shows how the GCHQ and the Times editor invaded the privacy and dignity of many citizens.
The GCHQ don’t believe they are invading anyone’s privacy as they save these messages and investigate them without the holder’s permission. They believe that they are not concerned about personal emails but are concerned about safety and terrorist threats. It may seem ethical how they are securing everyone’s safety but these journalists are doing their jobs and can face greater danger if they are exposed by the GCHQ. A legal document was filed by privacy international against the GCHQ-NSA to put an end to unlawful hacking. Snowden revealed that the GCHQ intruded in millions of people’s personal lives. Nude pictures, personal information and experiences that were shared between two people had been accessed by a third party without their consent and/or knowledge. (Privacy International, 2015)
The Right to Personal Privacy
When involving the press the right to privacy is diminished at the time of death and is a personal right. If a person provided consent there cannot be any complaints about invasion of privacy. Not all information about a person is protected. If the press intrudes on one’s solitude and publish private facts it can put them in harm, and cause pain for a long period of time. Reporters have the right to publish but that does not mean that they need to or that the community needs to know. Reporters and editors need to be extra careful when personal information is involved. (Smith, 1993) This shows that just as it is important for editors and journalist to be careful when publishing because they will be held accountable for lives if they publish some of the private information they hold, the government should be held accountable for taking private information from people. Having ones consent to search through their mail or phone records is different from doing it without them ever knowing. People put their trust in their emails and private conversations.
Journalist are treated the same as terrorist by as the GCHQ collect all their emails and review them. Journalists aren’t treated fairly and the reasoning behind the GCHQs behavior is irrelevant. Journalist and the community need their privacy and if for whatever reason the government and security agencies feel the need to invade that privacy they should not, but simply just get an approval or disapproval from the account holder. We all need that barrier for privacy. If the government is going to continue to spy on people they need to at least say why.
This work by Nalie Frederick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
