GCHQ captured emails of journalists from top international media

[Newsjock]

Source: The Guardian

GCHQ’s bulk surveillance of electronic communications has scooped up emails to and from journalists working for some of the US and UK’s largest media organisations, analysis of documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.

Emails from the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Sun, NBC and the Washington Post were saved by GCHQ and shared on the agency’s intranet as part of a test exercise by the signals intelligence agency.

The disclosure comes as the British government faces intense pressure to protect the confidential communications of reporters, MPs and lawyers from snooping.

The journalists’ communications were among 70,000 emails harvested in the space of less than 10 minutes on one day in November 2008 by one of GCHQ’s numerous taps on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/19/gchq-intercepted-emails-journalists-ny-times-bbc-guardian-le-monde-reuters-nbc-washington-post

[Jackpine Radical]

1. There was a time when I would have been outraged by this news.

These days, though, it's just another day, another bunch of disgusting revelations about what the Gray Men are doing.

[Blue_Tires]

2. Mercifully, journalists in Russia don't have to endure this...

Their government simply just has them shot...

[grasswire]

3. uh...

Michael Hastings....

[grasswire]

4. GAry Webb RIP nt

[Fred Sanders]

5. So illegal, systemic invasion of privacy of members of the free press is "harvesting"? Just fuck.

[zeemike]

6. Yes but this is nothing new.

It is just meta data, and the emails don't belong to you anyway...and boxes in the garage.

Do you want the terrorist to win?...Big Brother will keep us safe.

[Fred Sanders]

7. Journalist are going to be pissed, CNN and Fox do not employ any so I doubt Americans will hear much.

Is the pen mighter than the hacking virus, we will see?

[zeemike]

8. Well the way things are going journalism will be extinct in 20 years.

And the schools that teach it will teach how to dress nice for the camera and how to read the "news"

[Hissyspit]

9. We knew about this already.

Well, not the details. And also not the part about it happening.

We could have guessed it was happening! So actual proof is useless.

[bl968]

10. They get metadata too but that's the least of what they get.

They collect the full stream including message contents they use programs to scan it for terms of interest and look at it if anything is found they think they may be interested in. They also do the some for phone calls so you can figure that it's always a three party call.