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I'm Not a Spy:' Reporters Reveal Surveillance Fears
U.S. government surveillance programs are scaring away sources, making journalists feel like criminals and spies, and impacting the public's access to quality news reporting, according to a new report released today.
The 130-page With Liberty to Monitor All report by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union was based on 92 interviews with journalists, lawyers, and former and current U.S. government officials, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Within the context of recent revelations of widespread surveillance by US authorities, including by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the report seeks to document how government spying has affected not just the work of journalists and lawyers, but also the subsequent impact on the public's access to information.
While far from scientific, the report's recurring theme is one of growing difficulty for journalists trying to cultivate and protect sources, and develop stories that involve sensitive or controversial government issues. Of the 46 journalists interviewed, many spoke of the time-consuming and arduous measures they have had to go to in recent times to ensure their work and their sources were not compromised - interestingly, much of it involved a delicate balance between using special technology, such as encryption, and abandoning technology altogether.
"Journalists told us that officials are substantially less willing to be in contact with the press, even with regard to unclassified matters or personal opinions, than they were even a few years ago," the report said.
"In turn, journalists increasingly feel the need to adopt elaborate steps to protect sources and information, and eliminate any digital trail of their investigations--from using high-end encryption, to resorting to burner phones [discarded after a short period of time], to abandoning all online communication and trying exclusively to meet sources in person."
The journalists also said the additional security measures were not only a burden that made reporting take longer, but also sometimes threatened to scare sources away.
"In many instances, for encryption to work, both the journalist and the source must have some facility with the same encryption tool. Some journalists expressed doubts about their own ability to master encryption and related technologies," the report said.
"Others noted that many would-be sources lack the technical savvy to approach journalists safely, and even that using encrypted methods of communication with typical sources--as opposed to sources who already prefer to use encryption--might 'spook' them."
"They're going to feel like they're doing something wrong," said investigative journalist Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, in her interview for the report. "Your source has to be really committed [to bother with advanced security measures]."
Most journalists also expressed doubts about how effective their security measures were in the first place. Some did not believe encryption offered ironclad protection, and many indicated that journalists were simply not equipped or trained to adequately cover their tracks against the reach of authorities like the NSA or other intelligence services.
"I don't want the government to force me to act like a spy. I'm not a spy; I'm a journalist," Washington Post reporter Adam Goldman told the report's authors. "What are we supposed to do? Use multiple burners? No email? Dead drops? I don't want to do my job that way. You can't be a journalist and do your job that way."
Government officials interviewed countered journalists' concerns that increased surveillance was making it more difficult to work or receive material from whistleblowers, pointing to stories like the NSA revelations from Edward Snowden as proof that a culture of leaking is alive and well.
But the report details a number of deterrents put in place by the government to discourage leaks, including over-classification of documents, limiting officials' contact with media, and the "Insider Threat Program" which calls on government employees to be alert to colleagues who may be leaking state secrets.
It also points out that the risk of prosecution for whistleblowers has never been higher.
"It is not lost on us, or on our sources, that there have been eight criminal cases against sources [under the current administration] versus three before [under all previous administrations combined]," said Charlie Savage, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times.
US: NSA Surveillance Restricts Press Freedom(Washington DC, July 28, 2014) Large-scale US surveillance is seriously hampering US-based journalists and lawyers in their ...
Ultimately, the report argues that increased surveillance and government crackdown on officials speaking with and leaking to media will have a negative impact on "news coverage, public accountability, and the quality of democratic debate."
"The US government has an obligation to defend national security, yet many of its surveillance practices go well beyond what may be justified as necessary and proportionate to that aim. Instead, these practices are undermining fundamental rights and risk changing the nature of US democracy itself," the report said. "The net result is a less informed public."
Government Surveillance Threatens Journalism, Law and Thus Democracy: Report
Interviews with dozens of leading journalists and attorneys found that U.S. government overreach is eroding critically important freedoms
The impunity with which the American government spies on journalists and attorneys is undermining the American people's ability to hold their leaders accountable, thus threatening the core of our democracy, charged a joint report published Monday by two leading rights organizations.
The report--With Liberty to Monitor All: How Large-Scale US Surveillance is Harming Journalism, Law, and American Democracy, published by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch--draws from extensive interviews with dozens of top journalists, lawyers and senior government officials. What the authors found is that recent revelations of widespread government surveillance have forced many professionals to alter or abandon work related to "matters of great public concern."
According to the report, "Surveillance has magnified existing concerns among journalists and their sources over the administration's crackdown on leaks." With increasing prosecution of whistleblowers, restrictions on communication between intelligence officials and the media, and snitch programs for federal workers, journalists say that their sources have become "increasingly scared to talk about anything."
"It's a terrible time to be covering government," NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten told the report authors.
Further, journalists are forced to employ elaborate means of communicating with their sources, such as encryption and "burner" phones, which hampers their work.
The report argues that these increasing impediments have resulted in "less information reaching the public," thus having a "direct effect on the public's ability to obtain important information about government activities, and on the ability of the media to serve as a check on government."
"Secrecy works against all of us," said Dana Priest, a reporter for the Washington Post. "What makes government better is our work exposing information. It's not just that it's harder for me to do my job, though it is. It [also] makes the country less safe."
Similarly, lawyers say that government surveillance has crippled their ability to maintain confidential correspondence with their clients, threatening the trust, free exchange of information, and potentially the security of those involved.
Jason Wright, a member of the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps who does work before the Guantanamo commissions, told the researchers that he and his colleagues are "fearful" that their communications with witnesses abroad are being monitored and consequently, attempts to build their case "might put people in harm's way."
The authors charge that this amounts to the "erosion of the right to counsel," which they say is a "pillar of procedural justice under human rights law and the US Constitution."
"The US holds itself out as a model of freedom and democracy, but its own surveillance programs are threatening the values it claims to represent," said report author Alex Sinha, Aryeh Neier Fellow at HRW and the ACLU. "The US should genuinely confront the fact that its massive surveillance programs are damaging many critically important rights."
Along with the report, the groups published this video highlighting their work.
US: NSA Surveillance Restricts Press Freedom(Washington DC, July 28, 2014) Large-scale US surveillance is seriously hampering US-based journalists and lawyers in their ...