New York, October 16, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s statement today in which he urged members of parliament to investigate whether the Guardian had broken the law or damaged national security by publishing the NSA files.
“Prime Minister Cameron suggested today that the Guardian has damaged national security or broken the law, but he provided no evidence whatsoever to support these claims,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “Today’s statements and the suggestion that the Guardian be criminally investigated are deeply chilling.”
Cameron’s statements come in the aftermath of the United Kingdom’s detention, harassment, and confiscation of files and electronic equipment from David Miranda, partner and assistant to Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, at Heathrow international airport in August. London Metropolitan Police held Miranda under Britain’s anti-terror law, and aggressively questioned him about the Guardian‘s work on the Snowden files, CPJ research shows.