Daily Archives: 22. Juni 2023


22.06.2023 - 20:45 [ New York Times ]

Nuclear Secrets, a Compost Heap and the Lost Documents Daniel Ellsberg Never Leaked

(April 20, 2023)

Daniel Ellsberg — who died Friday at 92 — fully expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after he leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1971. The documents revealed decades of government lies and mistakes about the war in Vietnam, and eventually, they helped end it.

The charges against Ellsberg were ultimately dismissed, but he had a secret: The Pentagon Papers were only supposed to be the beginning. Alongside the documents about Vietnam, he’d copied thousands of pages of other documents about America’s nuclear war planning that he believed would shock the public conscience. But a series of mishaps kept those documents from ever coming to light.

22.06.2023 - 20:30 [ Mehdi Hasan, Host, @mehdihasanshow on @MSNBC / Nitter ]

„We are at this moment on a road to Hell.“ I discussed the Espionage Act, Julian Assange, and his own experiences with the Pentagon Papers, with the one and only @DanielEllsberg on my @MSNBC show tonight:

(May 8, 2023)

22.06.2023 - 20:14 [ EuropeanConservative.com ]

EU Members Want Option To Spy on Journalists in the Name of National Security

According to Politico, the latest text of the draft law from June 16th states that the word “spyware” has been replaced by the term “intrusive surveillance software” and that at least one delegation is wanting the inclusion of a passage noting member states having sole responsibility for their own national security.

The new law comes after several scandals across Europe involving spyware, such as the Pegasus spyware scandal, in which both politicians and journalists were targeted by the software, which was created by the Israel-based NSO Group.

22.06.2023 - 20:09 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

EU-Staaten schwächen Gesetz zum Schutz der Pressefreiheit

Der Rat der EU-Staaten hat heute seinen Entwurf für das geplante Europäische Medienfreiheitsgesetz beschlossen. Darin hat der Rat den vorgesehenen Schutz von Journalist:innen vor staatlicher Überwachung deutlich abgeschwächt. Nach dem Vorschlag der Kommission sollte das Gesetz eigentlich europaweit ein weitgehendes Verbot von Überwachungsmaßnahmen, Inhaftierung und Beschlagnahmungen gegen Journalist:innen zur Ausforschung ihrer Quellen einführen. Auch sollte es demnach ein explizites Verbot der Überwachung von Journalist:innen mit Staatstrojanern festschreiben.

22.06.2023 - 20:02 [ Politico.eu ]

EU capitals want media law carve-out to spy on reporters

(20.06.2023)

European Union governments want to be able to spy on reporters in the name of national security, even as lawmakers urge them to crack down on spyware.

Governments‘ deputy ambassadors are set to give their blessing at a Council meeting on Wednesday to a national security exemption in a new media regulation whose original purpose was to safeguard media independence and pluralism.

Privacy advocates and journalists’ organizations argue the new clause would give countries a free pass to snoop on reporters.

22.06.2023 - 19:55 [ theGuardian.com ]

Draft EU plans to allow spying on journalists are dangerous, warn critics

On Wednesday, the European Council – which represents the governments of EU member states – published a draft of the European Media Freedom Act that would allow spyware to be placed on journalists’ phones if a national government thought it necessary.

Unusually, the council did not take the step of holding an in-person meeting of ministers responsible for media before the draft was published.

22.06.2023 - 19:53 [ DailyMail.co.uk ]

EU set to approve the use of spyware to uncover confidential journalist sources ‚in the name of national security‘

Press freedom advocates warned the last-minute changes demanded by France could ‚open the door to all sorts of abuses‘.

All 32 offences listed in the EU arrest warrant, alongside any crime that could lead to a prison sentence of over five years, could be used under the new draft law.

It would also let EU governments exempt themselves from spying on journalists if it is an ‚overriding requirement of the public interest‘.

22.06.2023 - 18:52 [ ilFattoQuotidiano.it ]

Judge orders the Crown Prosecution Service to come clean about the destruction of key documents on Julian Assange

(31.05.2023)

For the last six years, they have rejected all of our attempts to shed light on the destruction of key documents in the Julian Assange case, even though the emails were deleted when the high-profile, controversial case was still ongoing.

But now the British authorities at the Crown Prosecution Service have to come clean: they must declare whether they hold any information as to when, how and why that documentation was deleted, and if they do hold it, they must either release it to us or clarify the grounds for their refusal.

(…)

The Crown Prosecution Service must comply with this judicial order by June 23, and any failure on their part to do so could lead to contempt proceedings.

22.06.2023 - 18:35 [ iNews.co.uk ]

Covid inquiry: Chris Whitty admits lockdown was ‘radical’ and criticises UK ‘failures’ in pandemic planning

He told Lady Hallett’s inquiry: “Social measures, many of which are longstanding – quarantine, individual isolation, closing schools, many of these go back to the Middle Ages or beyond – these are not new ideas, however the very big new idea was the idea of a lockdown, I am talking here very very specifically about the state saying people have to go home and stay at home… It’s a very radical thing to do.”

22.06.2023 - 15:41 [ BBC ]

Lockdown was ‚very radical thing to do‘ – Whitty to Covid inquiry

. The chief medical adviser, Sir Chris Whitty, tells the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that lockdown was a „very radical thing to do“
– He calls the lockdown „extraordinarily major“ and a „big new idea“ that wasn‘t considered in advance
– He also says he saw the damage from the disease „first-hand“ as a working medic
– Earlier, Cobra chief Roger Hargreaves talked about the emergency regulations in the Civil Contingencies Act never being used
– The government‘s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance, is due to give evidence later
– zYou can watch the hearings by pressing play at the top of the page