Top US News Orgs. Teach UK Parliament Some Democracy

This needs etching on a large steel sheet and nailgunning to the door of Parliament:

December 2, 2013

OPEN LETTER TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS HOME AFFAIRS COMMITTEE:

As news organizations, editors, and journalists who often report on government actions
that officials seek to keep secret, we write to the Committee on the eve of the forthcoming
appearance of Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger to express our grave concern over pointed calls
by those in authority for censorship of The Guardian and criminal prosecution of its journalists in
the name of national security. Such sanctions, and the chilling impact created by even the threat
to impose them, undermine the independence and integrity of the press that are essential for
democracy to function.

Tony Blair to NSA: Sure – have it all – We won’t tell the plebs

From the Grauniad, via Ed Snowden:

The memo explains that the US and UK ‘worked together to come up with a new policy that expands the use of incidentally collected unminimized UK data.’

The phone, internet and email records of UK citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing have been analysed and stored by America’s National Security Agency under a secret deal that was approved by British intelligence officials, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.