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| Stephen Fry denounces UK government for not acting on Snowden revelations | Stephen Fry denounces UK government for not acting on Snowden revelations |
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| Stephen Fry has denounced the government's failure to act over the mass surveillance programme revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, labelling its behaviour as "squalid and rancid". | Stephen Fry has denounced the government's failure to act over the mass surveillance programme revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, labelling its behaviour as "squalid and rancid". |
| Opening a day of debate to galvanise action against industrial-scale spying by the British and US intelligence agencies, Fry said that exploiting the fear of terrorism is a "duplicitous and deeply wrong means of excusing something as base as spying on the citizens of your own country". | Opening a day of debate to galvanise action against industrial-scale spying by the British and US intelligence agencies, Fry said that exploiting the fear of terrorism is a "duplicitous and deeply wrong means of excusing something as base as spying on the citizens of your own country". |
| The performer was speaking via a prerecorded interview at a London summit on Saturday marking the anniversary of the start of Snowden's revelations, which were first published in the Guardian and the Washington Post. | |
| The day of action is billed as the biggest privacy event of 2014, with more than 500 people attending the event at Shoreditch Town Hall in east London. | The day of action is billed as the biggest privacy event of 2014, with more than 500 people attending the event at Shoreditch Town Hall in east London. |
| Speaking at the event are experts in technology, security and human rights from across the world. | Speaking at the event are experts in technology, security and human rights from across the world. |
| Among them are Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who said: "The tide is beginning to turn as the public comes to understand just how broken the surveillance state is." | Among them are Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who said: "The tide is beginning to turn as the public comes to understand just how broken the surveillance state is." |
| Other high-profile speakers include Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor-in-chief who led the team that masterminded a series of remarkable disclosures from the files leaked by the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower. | Other high-profile speakers include Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor-in-chief who led the team that masterminded a series of remarkable disclosures from the files leaked by the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower. |
| Before a packed audience, Rusbridger recounted the "frenetic" period last summer when the British government attempted to strong-arm the Guardian into not publishing further revelations, at one point forcing senior editors to destroy hard-drives holding some of the encrypted files leaked by Snowden. However, he said that the British government's heavy-handed reaction backfired. | |
| "By forcing the reporting out of the UK to the USA, the British government lost any handle on this story at all. So, I hope that the British government will think about that in the future." | |
| Rusbridger also lamented the UK's lack of an enshrined right to free speech, referring to the US constitution's first amendment and the "quasi-constitutional role" of that nation's press. | |
| "We need to embody some of those rights here, we don't have rights in Britain. We tend to wait until things go wrong, so there is no really established right to privacy because there is no constitutional protection of free speech," he told the audience. | |
| Rusbridger added that those keen to "shut down" the Snowden story tended to frame it as a question of privacy versus national security. | |
| However, he said, Snowden's revelations opened up many fundamental more issues of public interest. | |
| The summit is organised by the Don't Spy on Us Campaign, a coalition of privacy, free expression and digital rights organisations which is urging the British government to end mass surveillance on the web and mobile phone networks by the UK's eavesdropping centre GCHQ. | The summit is organised by the Don't Spy on Us Campaign, a coalition of privacy, free expression and digital rights organisations which is urging the British government to end mass surveillance on the web and mobile phone networks by the UK's eavesdropping centre GCHQ. |
| The coalition is calling for an inquiry that will report before next year's general election and investigate the extent to which current laws have failed to protect the privacy of members of the public. | The coalition is calling for an inquiry that will report before next year's general election and investigate the extent to which current laws have failed to protect the privacy of members of the public. |
| They also are demanding new legislation to make the security agencies accountable to MPs. | They also are demanding new legislation to make the security agencies accountable to MPs. |
| Other measures include the use of judges instead of the home secretary to decide when spying can be justified. | Other measures include the use of judges instead of the home secretary to decide when spying can be justified. |
| Blogger and activist Cory Doctorow, who is also speaking at the event, said: "Freedom from surveillance is essential to freedom itself. The freedom to think, to speak and to have discourse without fear of reprisal or even judgment is at the core of democracy itself." | |
| Emma Carr, acting director of Big Brother Watch, called on the government to publicly acknowledge that the UK's surveillance laws need to be reviewed. | Emma Carr, acting director of Big Brother Watch, called on the government to publicly acknowledge that the UK's surveillance laws need to be reviewed. |
| "Without affirmative action, the government will certainly find that the general public's faith in politicians to properly monitor how the security agencies are using surveillance powers will diminish," she said. | "Without affirmative action, the government will certainly find that the general public's faith in politicians to properly monitor how the security agencies are using surveillance powers will diminish," she said. |
| Gos Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, added: "Secret surveillance is anathema to a democratic society, as no real debate can take place without an informed public." | Gos Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, added: "Secret surveillance is anathema to a democratic society, as no real debate can take place without an informed public." |