I've generally given GCHQ an easy ride but this is pretty fuckin dodgy.
When someone burns a book or a flag they're just saying "I really hate this book and the ideas in it" - and it's great that people do this so visibly because it means I know how to talk to them.
But government agents watching while journalists destroy journalistic materials to protect other journalists? That's something that must not happen in Britain again.
Wouldn't it be a lot worse if the government agents had seized the drives, arrested the journalists, and gone on a witchhunt to root out everyone else who was involved? As it was the Guardian journalists stood on principle and said 'we really don't want to hand this over' so the GCHQ chaps helpfully sat around and let them destroy the evidence. This is really quite a reasonable compromise.
A reasonable compromise? Any compromise is reasonable when your starting point is extreme enough. Saying "well it could have been a lot worse" is a cop out. It shouldn't have happened at all.
OK, but what does that have to do with what I posted above?
Also, if you think spooks only come in the front door you don't have any security anyway. More so in the UK, with the extremely stringent Official Secrets Act.
I've generally given GCHQ an easy ride but this is pretty fuckin dodgy.
When someone burns a book or a flag they're just saying "I really hate this book and the ideas in it" - and it's great that people do this so visibly because it means I know how to talk to them.
But government agents watching while journalists destroy journalistic materials to protect other journalists? That's something that must not happen in Britain again.