Strasbourg, 11/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - In the midst of the almost daily flow of revelations regarding the all enveloping espionage activities carried out by the US National Security Agency (NSA), MEPs sought, on Tuesday evening 10 September, to raise the subject of the controversial detentionof the Brazilian partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist on the Guardian newspaper. He was detained for several hours in August by the British authorities. Greenwald helped break the news regarding the Snowden affair and with it, the revelations regarding US and British espionage practices.
On 18 August, the young Brazilian was arrested and detained for several hours at Heathrow airport under the anti-terrorism act. His computer was also seized. At the end of August, the Guardian newspaper also revealed a raid on the premises of the newspaper by the British authorities seeking to have any articles relating to Edward Snowden destroyed. MEPs are concerned by these two affairs and would like to examine the legality of these proceedings and the consequences they have on the freedom of the media.
Commissioner Neelie Kroes, however, was unable to reassure them, despite indicating that this affair had already been brought to the British law courts and that it was the EU's duty to ensure that the freedom of the media is “fully respected when European law applies”. Kroes noted possible limitations to this principle when “national security and public order” were involved and said that any restrictions, however, should always be “proportionate”. MEPs were particularly curious about the United Kingdom's use of its anti-terrorist laws, which may prove illegal, according to Claude Moraes (S&D, United Kingdom), who is in charge of the Parliamentary report on the phone tapping scandal. Sophia In't Veld (ALDE, Netherlands) said that such conduct was worthy of North Korea and she said that freedom of the media in Europe was in danger. Before the summer, the Commission set up a transatlantic working group to examine the impact on European law resulting from the different espionage activities revealed in the press. It is also looking at a number of international agreements connected to the fight against terrorism, in an effort to verify whether they are being appropriately used. (SP/transl.fl)