The Guardian To Be Questioned On Trial After NSA Leaks

Allan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, will be questioned by MP’s before the Commons House Affairs select committee next month as part of a wider counter terrorism investigation.

Keith Vaz, Labour head of the Commons Home affairs committee said House committee will investigate “elements of the Guardian’s involvement in, and publication of the Snowden leaks”  

The investigation begins a month after Cameron had threatened to pursue actions against The Guardian through DA-notices, or government advisory notes to media editors requiring them not to publish articles the government deals as a threat to natural security.

The Prime Minister has also made several comments establishing the newspaper as a threat to national security.

“I think the plain fact is, what has happened had damaged national security in many ways” said Cameron.

A sentiment that seems to be paralleled by top MP leaders such as director of Britain’s M15 domestic security service who was criticized for saying “Leaks by Edward Snowden about the UK’s surveillance activities are a gift to terrorists helping them elude the intelligence agency.

However, not everyone agrees with the British governments actions.

A group of about 70 human rights organizations wrote “An Open Letter To David Cameron” to express their opposition to the investigation of The Guardian. Some of the organizations involved in the letter were Privacy International, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Liberty.

In the letter the organizations expressed their alarm for the way the British government has condemned investigative journalism, they go on to explain “we are alarmed at the way in which the UK government has reacted, using national security legislation against those who have helped bring this public interest information… The governments action has been to condemn rather than celebrate, investigative journalism. “