Rusbridger: IP Bill Fundamental Threat to Journalists

Speaking at the IBC’s conference on defamation and privacy, Alan Rusbridger said that journalists needed to do more to push back against the threat the Investigatory Powers Bill poses to source protection and the public interest.

The editor-in-chief of the Guardian for 20 years, Mr Rusbridger warned of the worrying precedent that the bill would set across the world and the threat posed to Britain’s role as a democracy, the Society of Editors reported. 

He said: “The Investigatory Powers Bill is the most fundamental threat to what we do. It is not just harmful to journalists, we are not exceptional but there is a noticeable shrug from many professions.

“There’s been some anger about this, but we haven’t seen anything like the level of journalistic anger about this as we have seen about the right to read about celebrities in paddling pools.

 “This is a fundamental threat to journalists and what we do…Even 18th century judges thought there was something troublesome about seizing the papers of a journalist. This is what Edward Snowden was warning us about and to wake up. It is an incredibly worrying thing.”

Mr Rusbridger pointed to the report published in 2015 by the Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office that 19 police forces across the country had invoked the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act in order to gain access to journalist’s communications data.

“That 19 police forces put forward applications to access journalistic material in three years – that seems to me a very significant volume.

“This matters because as any journalist will know, it is often unauthorised material that is the most valuable. We need to push back as hard as we can otherwise we are going to betray future journalists.

“If this becomes entrenched it will lead to sources dying, because people in other countries look to Britain and see Britain as a country which has high standards of freedom of speech, if we shrug that gives a terrible example to the rest of the world.”

The News Media Association continues to call for greater protections including prior notification of applications and the right to appeal. The Investigatory Powers Bill will receive its second reading in the House of Lords on 27 June.