Committee to Protect Journalists Warns of NSA Effects
One of the world's leading journalism watchdogs warns that the NSA's activities pose a "direct threat to journalism" by compromising the confidence between reporters and sources who hope to remain anonymous.
One of the world’s leading journalism watchdogs warns that the NSA’s activities pose a “direct threat to journalism” by compromising the confidence between reporters and sources who hope to remain anonymous.
Ed Pilkington of The Guardian reports:
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based body that promotes press freedom around the world, has devoted the first two chapters of its annual report on global threats to an assessment of the impact of the NSA’s data sweep. Its internet advocacy co-ordinator, Geoffrey King, warns that the NSA’s dragnet threatens to put journalists under a cloud of suspicion and to expose them to routine spying by government agencies.
By storing mass data for long periods, the NSA could develop the capability to recreate a reporter’s research, retrace a source’s movements and listen in on past communications, King warns. “It could soon be possible to uncover sources with such ease as to render meaningless any promise of confidentiality a journalist may attempt to provide – and if an interaction escapes scrutiny in the first instance, it could be reconstructed later.”
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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