Culture secretary Sajid Javid: journalism is not terrorism

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/05/culture-secretary-sajid-javid-journalism-not-terrorism

Version 0 of 1.

Sajid Javid, the culture secretary, signalled on Thursday that the government will rapidly introduce safeguards to prevent the police accessing the phone records of reporters without approval of a judge, saying that “journalism is not terrorism”.

Javid said he would like to see the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) amended before the election in May after it emerged 608 journalists’ phone records had been accessed by police in order to investigate leaks.

The revelation was contained in a report by the interception of communications commissioner Sir Anthony May, which was accepted in full by the government. Since then, Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, has written to Theresa May, the home secretary, urging her to bring forward changes in the law within the next month.

Speaking at a lunch for political journalists in Westminster on Thursday, Javid confirmed he backed this timetable. “I want to see the law changed to make it happen during this parliament, because there is no excuse for using anti-terror legislation to threaten legitimate reporting, no matter how awkward that reporting might be.

“Blowing a whistle on council corruption doesn’t warrant undercover surveillance. A front page that embarrasses a senior politician is not a threat to national security. Journalism is not terrorism.”

Javid told the lunch that he was “shocked” by the extent of official snooping on the confidential sources of journalists.

“Democracy needs journalists to function,” he said. “That is why last month’s attacks in Paris struck a chord around the world. They weren’t just an attack on a magazine, they were an attack on the ideals that underpin our way of life.

“Our journalists also face insidious threats from other quarters, be they commercial, judicial or political. Yesterday, we learnt the full extent to which Ripa was used to monitor journalists and their contacts. Like many of you, I was shocked by what was revealed.

“In Paris we saw terrorists attacking the fundamental freedoms of the media, so I was appalled to discover that legislation created to hamper terrorists was now being used to undermine those very same freedoms.”

The review of surveillance powers was ordered after it emerged Scotland Yard accessed the phone records of the Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn to find who had leaked information on the Plebgate row.

May’s report found that Ripa did not “provide adequate safeguards to protect journalistic sources” and recommended that “judicial authorisation is obtained in cases where communications data is sought to determine the source of journalistic information.”

During the lunch, Javid was separately questioned about the future of the BBC licence fee as peers voted to delay moves to decriminalise non-payment until 2017.

He insisted decisions must await the current charter review in which “nothing should be off the table.”

The MP, who became the Conservatives’ first British-Asian cabinet minister last year, also displayed his credentials as a possible contender for the Tory leadership by emphasising he would not “shed a tear” if Britain left the European Union.