xer-files
Monday, May 29, 2006
  Spying the Press
Fringe Special - Surveillance of the press

Freedom of the press is one of the pillars of parliamentary democracy. However, the systematic monitoring of the press and the use of journalists by the intelligence and security services is, sadly, not confined to history. As far as the monitoring is concerned, the watershed has been the War on Terror.

In the last months, there has been an upsurge of articles on press restrictions, surveillance and manipulation of journalists by the intelligence services.

In the US: spying on the press, monitoring and prosecuting civil servants who have contact with the press.

In Germany there seems to have been a systematic surveillance of the press for more than a decade. This is developing into a political scandal of the first degree. [This affair is the main reason for publishing this Fringe Special].


In the Netherlands, of course nothing of the kind happens here. Of course there is the odd incident once in a while. Recently there has been a local version of this domestication process. It concerns the Telegraaf, a mainstream right wing and by far the biggest, newspaper in the Netherlands.

But fortunately, as our intelligence community, the government and the parliament inform us in unison, our AIVD is not comparable with the BND, the CIA and the FBI. So no need for vigilance, just relax. Meanwhile AIVD and AIVD-methods are being put to use in the police investigations on the Telegraaf and their journalists. Our parliamentary guardians of democracy seem to have forgotten that the use of intel methods in police investigations is forbidden by law.

All the best, the Fringe editors


 
Comments: Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home
You know Stone's 'Hidden History of the Korean War'?

My Photo
Name:
Location: Netherlands
Archives
February 2005 / March 2005 / April 2005 / May 2005 / June 2005 / July 2005 / August 2005 / September 2005 / October 2005 / November 2005 / December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / June 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / March 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / June 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / November 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / July 2008 / October 2008 / December 2008 / January 2009 / February 2009 / March 2009 / April 2009 / May 2009 / June 2009 /