Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Police seize journalists phone records

snoop | 06.12.2006 11:25 | Other Press | Repression | Technology

Apparently it took police 7 months to confess to this

The country was quite rightly up in arms over the News of the World’s devious phone tapping exploits.

And now a local newspaper is equally indignant after discovering that Suffolk’s most senior detective obtained the private mobile phone records of a journalist without his consent in a bid to discover who he had been speaking to.

Journalists are fiercely protective of their source of information, they risk going to prison rather than revealing his or her source, their reputation would be lost if they disclosed that valuable information given on the basis of trust and confidentiality.

Now it seems that if the police want to check out who a journalist has been speaking to on their mobile phone, then they can just go ahead and obtain the records without their consent.

This has naturally infuriated the editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, who has requested a full explanation from Suffolk’s Chief Constable. Reporter Mark Bulstrode only discovered his phone records had been obtained after making a request under the Data Protection Act.

Police have defended their action saying there was concern that the disclosure of information could have jeopardised an investigation into a serious crime, potentially resulting in an offender evading justice.

They obtained the phone records after the journalist approached the force with information about the reopening of an historic investigation. Despite the EADT agreeing not to run anything on the inquiry because of its sensitive nature, police wanted to know how they had found out about the case - so obtained the phone records.

However, it brought condemnation from Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, (my former editor at the Cambridge Evening News where he was fondly known as Captain Bob), who described it as “outrageous” and said he would be raising the matter with the Government. Shouldn’t there be a code of conduct which applies to this kind of action?

Local MPs are also disturbed by what happened. South Suffolk MP Tim Yeo said:

“I have never regarded mobile phone records as being especially secure - having said that I think the police would have to show good reason why they should take this kind of action.”

Chris Mole, Labour MP for Ipswich, said:

“It is not acceptable for them to go trawling through records on a fishing expedition without clear evidence.”

Reporters are bound to speak to their sources by mobile phone, but how safe is their source going to feel knowing that police can check up on the reporter’s phone records in this way? I wonder how commonplace this is, and whether a reporter’s emails are safe too from intrusive eyes, thanks to the skill of hackers. Does the digital age mean journalists can no longer keep anything secret?

snoop

Additions

Woken up to the police state?

07.12.2006 10:42

Of course the police can do this, the Government has passed legislation allowing and encouraging this and much worse. People need to fight now before even more repression in introduced.Just wait till the National Identy Register is in place; you ain't seen nothing yet.

To recap, recent legislation includes...

Recent legislation


The police can break into property and place bugs (Police Act 1997).


The police can now stop and search without any suspicion in an 'authorised' area. (Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000).


Definition of “terrorism” includes (the threat of) computer hacking and causing damage to property (Terrorism Act 2000 and the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001).

The govt can impose “control orders” on anyone they suspect might be involved in “terrorism-related” activity. (The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005)


Trespass on nuclear sites is now a terrorist offence (The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2006)

Communications service providers must backup traffic data as the Home Secretary orders, (Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001).

Since January 2006 all offences, no matter how trivial, are arrestable. (The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005)

The Health Secretary can now authorise disclosure of confidential patient information to anyone he chooses. (Health and Social Care Act 2001)

Anti-social behaviour orders -‘Asbos’-.(Crime and Disorder Act 1998).

Legislation prevents courts from challenging the legality of detention of a suspected terrorist. (Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001)

Local councils and the DWP can access all your financial details (Social Security Fraud Act 2001)

Routine use of hearsay evidence and "evidence of bad character", e.g. prior convictions and acquittals, can now be disclosed in court. (The Criminal Justice Act 2003).


Over 20 organisations have the power to snoop on who you communicate with electronically.(The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data) Order 2003)


Gulliver
- Homepage: http://www.nottingham-defy-id.org.uk


Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Warhousing of phone records and interception — Malcolm Kennedy
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech