Obama must chart clearer course on surveillance policy
Tonight President Obama has another opportunity to redirect the country’s out-of-control surveillance programs during his annual State of the Union address. He should seize it. The president’s much-anticipated January 17 speech about U.S. surveillance policy, which came in response to outrage over National Security Agency spying, left much unsaid–and many of the commitments he did…
Costa Rica must investigate tracking of daily’s phone calls
New York, January 22, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for a full investigation into reports that Costa Rican officials secretly monitored the phone records of the San José-based daily Diario Extra as part of a leak investigation.
Correa steps up fight; hacking alleged on both sides
Seven months after Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa flirted with the idea of offering asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, intercepted communications and leaked emails are again making headlines in the Andean country. This time, the story is not about international surveillance but a window onto the latest front in the ever-escalating war…
Obama’s legacy on the line with surveillance policy
When President Obama takes the lectern to discuss U.S. surveillance policy, as he is expected to do Friday, those hoping for sweeping reform are likely to be disappointed. As reported in The New York Times, the president appears poised to reject many of the recommendations of his Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, a…
On Internet freedom, India’s perilous trajectory
By the time the first story based on former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures splashed across the front pages of the world’s newspapers, India had reportedly begun deployment of its own major surveillance architecture, the Central Management System (CMS). The system is a $132 million project that allows central access to all communications content and…
While tech companies call for spying reform, telcos silent
On Monday, eight of the world’s leading technology companies set aside their rivalries to issue a direct challenge to U.S. lawmakers: lead the world by example and fix America’s broken surveillance state. Although the tech companies’ statement sends a powerful message, notably absent from the letter’s signatories is the appearance of a single telecommunications company,…
British journalists concerned by regulation, hostile climate
As Alan Rusbridger appears Tuesday before the Home Affairs committee of the U.K. Parliament to give evidence regarding the Guardian’s coverage of surveillance activities by the U.S. and U.K. governments, British journalists and analysts say that newspaper’s legal troubles are worrying in large part because they come against the backdrop of increased regulation and scrutiny…
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, October 2013
CPJ launches US report Following CPJ’s release of its report on the state of press freedom in the United States, the organization is pursuing high-level meetings with the White House. CPJ had drafted six recommendations that were shared with President Obama, including calling for a guarantee that journalists would not be at legal risk or…
Greenwald wants to return to US, but not yet
Glenn Greenwald would like to go home to the United States, at least for a visit. But the Guardian journalist and blogger is afraid to do so. He still has material and unpublished stories from his contacts with fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden that he believes U.S. authorities would love to get their hands on. The…