Journalistic freedom and the surveillance of journalists post-Snowden

A paradigmatic shift is sometimes revealed by an unanticipated and extraordinary event, and so it was with Edward Snowden in 2013. A National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Snowden was so appalled at the exponential expansion of covert digital surveillance that he decided it was his moral duty to inform the public, indeed the world. This he did from a hotel room in Hong Kong when he gave a small group of selected journalists access to 1.7 million classified documents taken from the NSA. These documents revealed the global snooping capabilities of the NSA and its ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence agency partners (ASIO in Australia, CSE in Canada, GCSB in New Zealand, and the GCHQ in United Kingdom). The Five Eyes can vacuum up just about all digital communications anywhere, anytime, and much else besides if they are so minded. Many who take a deep interest in signals intelligence thought these Anglo-Saxon agencies had probably increased their capabilities since 9/11, but even they were shocked when Snowden revealed the sheer scale – it far exceeded any estimate of capability

Subprime – The death of financial reporting or a failure of investigative journalism?

The in-depth reporting in the UK of the subprime market began in the UK in earnest after Northern Rock ran into trouble last August and a liquidity crisis developed. It was only then that the media started to report the inherent problems of the subprime market and the role of highly complex financial vehicles, especially Collateralised Debt Obligations. The UK public received very little warning prior to August 2007 in the media that there were potential problems for UK investors, mortgage seekers, saver, borrowers or other interested parties. Nor was it revealed in a timely fashion how many of the UK’s most respectable financial institutions were heavily exposed to derivatives. At this stage two key questions emerge: with the dominance of the current ‘churnalism’ news desk model, did the UK’s major media fail to apply investigative techniques to this important issue? – and are the mechanisms of the globalised financial markets now so complex and secretive that it is impossible for journalists to investigate

Investigative journalism: a case for intensive care?

Is Investigative Journalism in the UK dying or can a ‘Fifth Estate’ model resuscitate it? This paper is an examination of whether the American subscription and donation models such as ProPublica, Spot.US and Truthout are the way forward. In January 2009 a group of the UK’s top investigative journalists met privately to discuss ‘What is to be done?’ about the perceived perilous state of investigative journalism. There is profound concern that the traditional media either no longer has, or wishes to employ the resources to maintain a sustainable level of investigative journalism. While the Iraq War and the Credit Crunch have revealed the desperate need for better in-depth investigative reporting, the number of viable outlets has contracted. Investigative journalism is accepted as a core determinant of high quality journalism. The need for a critical mass of investigative journalists is widely perceived as vital to democracy as characterized by Carlyle’s ‘Fourth Estate’ model. The UK group is currently examining the US experience where long standing non-profit organisations like the Centre for Public Integrity and the Centre for Investigative Journalism have used the combined foundation and donation funding model. But new ‘Fifth Estate’ web based models are also being innovated. ProPublica, which employs a substantial number of experienced journalists, is funded by a wealthy philanthropist. Spot.US posts possible investigative projects and appeals to the public to donate to fund specific identified investigations. This paper will address whether new funding models can be employed in the UK

Urinal or conduit? Institutional information flow between the UK intelligence services and the news media

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Sage Publications 2013.Since the 1990s, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Security Service (MI5) have developed formal links with most major UK news organisations in an effort to improve the agencies’ media presentation. This article discusses the impact and inherent problems of these relationships, including whether the news media can have official, formal but non-attributable links with these agencies without compromising their role as the fourth estate. Utilising epistemologies for crime reporting and news sources, this article proposes an initial framework to analyse these institutional relationships. It also takes as a case study the controversy over whether MI5 deliberately played down their prior knowledge of 7/7 suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan. The author was one of the journalists briefed by MI5 on Khan and has here taken the Khan controversy as a case study to investigate the Security Service’s information flow and whether the agency misled, and indeed intended to mislead, the media and the public

From the Insight Team to Wikileaks, the continuing power of investigative journalism as a benchmark of quality news journalism

This new study, a follow-up to 2007’s The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies, includes a comparative analysis of possible alternative business models that may save the future of the quality news business across the developed ..

Spies and journalists: Towards an ethical framework?

The publication by the Guardian in the UK from mid-2013 of secret intelligence documents leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was highly controversial. The newspaper was attacked by the UK government, intelligence chiefs, some other news media and a range of other critics for publishing the previously secret documents. The Snowden affair was just the latest episode where the news media sought to publish information about intelligence operations, usually revealing some area of significant concern, in the face of government objections. In each case negotiations between the state and the news media have been adversarial. At the heart of this reoccurring problem is the balance in liberal democracies between national security and the freedom of the press to inform the public over matters of concern. This involves a complex set of ethical issues. This paper seeks to lay out the ethical terrain for this discussion incorporating the emergent discipline of intelligence ethics. The paper also takes the first steps in discussing a bipartisan framework for an ethical relationship between intelligence agencies and the news media that would allow accurate information to enter the public domain without recklessly jeopardising legitimate national security. It examines the various bodies that could act as an honest broker between the two sides but concludes that identifying such an organisation that would be trusted at this time is difficult