David Cameron Working To Stop UK Press From Publishing Anything More From Snowden Leaks

from the no-free-press dept

It looks like Glenn Greenwald picked the right time to leave the UK's The Guardian newspaper. Last week, we noted that David Cameron was pushing for an investigation into the paper for publishing stories based on Ed Snowden's leaks, and now Cameron is going even further in his attempt to stomp out any sense of a free press in the UK, threatening to make moves to block UK publications from writing anything else new about as-yet-unreleased Snowden documents. Because that'll stop the outrage.

David Cameron threatened on Monday to act to stop newspapers publishing what he called damaging leaks from former U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden.

"If they don't demonstrate some social responsibility it will be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act," Cameron told parliament.

I love that phrase "social responsibility." Because an awful lot of people would argue that the Guardian has demonstrated a hell of a lot more "social responsibility" in publishing the stories they have, revealing the massive overreach of the NSA, GCHQ and others in violating the civil liberties of people around the globe.

Later in his talk, Cameron suggests that he doesn't want to have to take direct action -- which is an implication that he might do exactly that:

"I don't want to have to use injunctions or D-notices (publication bans) or the other tougher measures. I think it's much better to appeal to newspapers' sense of social responsibility," he said.

There's that "social responsibility" phrase again. I don't think it means quite what Cameron seems to think it means. Social responsibility is not being stenographers for the government's point of view. Quite the opposite. You'd think that someone in Cameron's position would understand that.

Filed Under: david cameron, gchq, nsa, press freedom, social responsibility, super injunctions, surveillance, uk