UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#2"terror powers" seems quite appropriate - that this is legal at all is terrifying
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#3And why exactly are people wondering that it's always the fictionalized UK that turns into a fascist dictatorship and not any other country?
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#4And why exactly are people wondering that it's always the fictionalized UK that turns into a fascist dictatorship and not any other country?
Because it's pretty much the only country in Europe that's never had a facist government.
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#5I'm scared by how terror laws can be used to justify anything the state wants to do. I think it's too late to stop it now.
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#6Short term gain for long term pain from the security services here.
Journalists and researchers into Islamic groups like IS, should be left in peace to carry out research into how these militant groups operate and function.
The security services have struggled to make inroads on these groups. Unable to place effective spies and get Intel, especially on home grown cells.
Journalists therefore provide a double function in these challenging times. They provide the public with valuable insights into the psyche behind these groups, and in parallel they gain important access to people in these groups that no one else can.
The flip side of this coin, is that journalists need to be acutely aware that they are not used as an IS marketing and propaganda platform.
If journalist fear arrest from the state in order to divulge their sources then these groups stop talking to them.
My gut feeling is that this was exactly the security services intention. The article hints at the journalists links to an alleged pro-militant employer, so it is quite possible that they view him as a sympathiser.
One needs to understand the psyche of people who work in the security services and special branch. They are very polarised in their beliefs and their opinions. They tend to be racist, xenophobic and have a tendency to group people in tidy mental boxes. They see the world in black and white. There is no grey. They are massively insular and have very much an "us and them mentality". They have comparatively a large amount of power, and enjoy using it. They know that they can bend rules like this and will only get a public slap on the wrists and a quiet pat on the back from their superiors. Therefore they know that they can for a warning shot across this young Muslim journalist's bow, and get away with it.
My two cents.
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#7And why exactly are people wondering that it's always the fictionalized UK that turns into a fascist dictatorship and not any other country?
Because it's pretty much the only country in Europe that's never had a facist government.
I fear, looking around me, that this might not be that much of an antidote in other European countries.
Even here in Germany the historic lessons somehow seem to be at least partly forgotten.
We have a lot of outspoken people against right winged extremists, but there are regions here, where the right populists patrol the streets in the name of securing against raiders from eastern countries (south eastern Saxonia for example). There the police is not able to protect people against car theft and such, so that they flock to these who promise protection. And with overwhelming majority they oftentimes get voted into local governments.
I really hope such tendencies do not spread further. But clearly historic lessons seem to be forgotten in these regions.
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#8So, I nearly said something mildly snarky about the US having at least not stooped this low. But, then I remembered that Glenn Greenwald's partner's laptop was stolen from their home immediately after Greenwald mentioned on the phone he would be sending copies of encrypted communications from Snowden. The obvious candidate for that theft would be the US government. And, that would probably be even more despicable than doing it out in the open like this.
Nonetheless, I find it hard to believe people exist who want to live in a world like this, where privacy and free speech mean nothing. And, yet, when given the chance to build a world like this, so many weaselly little tyrants in bureaucratic roles take every opportunity to push people around, making the world sadder and more bleak for everyone.
Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#9Re: UK police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
#10The BBC article has some more on this [0]:
> "It did not resist Thames Valley's application for an order under the Terrorism Act in court because the act does not afford grounds under which it could be opposed.
> "It is troubling that this legislation does not provide the opportunity for the media to mount a freedom of speech defence."