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David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.30am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.
The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. According to official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 – over 97% – last under an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours. Miranda was then released without charge, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.
"This is a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process," said Greenwald. "To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the UK pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere. "But the last thing it will do is intimidate or deter us in any way from doing our job as journalists. Quite the contrary: it will only embolden us more to continue to report aggressively."
reply to post by Lady_Tuatha
is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ.
Originally posted by queenofswords
As much as I think freedom of the press is under fire, I still think there can be legitimate reasons to stop certain people, including journalists, if there is a reasonable suspicion that that person may have knowledge of terrorist activity.
Let's take a look at David Miranda's itinerary details:
**Miranda was on his way to South America after having visited in Berlin with Laura Poitras, an American documentary film director and producer. This trip was paid for by The Guardian according to the article.
**Laura Poitras is on the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) watch list herself. Hmmm....red flag.
**According to Greenwald, she is one of two people (him and her) that has full archives of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures and she helped Edward Snowden publish the NSA revelations.
IMO, the authorities did the right thing in stopping David Miranda to question him.
I think they consider it top priority to stop the revelations and Miranda's recent travels were uniquely connected to an individual that had assisted Snowden in what the government considers illegal and dangerous to national security.
Greenwald spouts that it's because Miranda is his partner, but it looks like it is because of Miranda's own travels and activity.
Originally posted by wrabbit2000
Well, play the game and accept what comes. I'm not saying I like it or that it's very nice to do ...but nation's really get touchy when you break their laws on national security.