Monday, 22 May 2006, 7:52 pm
Phone Taps in United States and Newsroom Spying in Germany “Confirm Civil Liberty Threats” Says IFJ
Systematic spying on journalists by security officials in both the US and Germany reveal how the global “war on terrorism” is becoming a catastrophe for civil liberties and press freedom says the International Federation of Journalists.
Yesterday, ABC News posted a blog about a senior federal law enforcement official telling the broadcaster that the US government is tracking the phone numbers called by their reporters in an effort to root out confidential sources. It has not yet been confirmed whether these actions are directly linked to the exposure last week of how the National Security Agency (NSA) database in America is tracking the phone calls of hundreds of millions of Americans.
At the same time, in Germany yesterday it was revealed that the German federal intelligence agency has been spying in news rooms and paying journalists to reveal their sources. This is only ‘the tip of the iceberg’ of pressure on media that threatens democracy everywhere, said the IFJ today.
“The reality of modern journalism is of illegal surveillance, direct interference by intelligence services in the work of media, and of unprecedented governmental pressure on independent journalism,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “In the process democracy is put at risk” ...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0605/S00428.htm