http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9049-3985
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Abstract
From June 2013, documents leaked by the National Security Agency (NSA) dissident Edward Snowden revealed that Western intelligence agencies are capable of bulk collection of electronic communications flowing through global telecommunication systems. Surveillance data shared by the “Five Eyes” eavesdropping agencies of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand include journalist’s communications. In the wake of the Snowden leak, Zygmunt Bauman and colleagues called for a systematic assessment of the scale, reach and character of contemporary surveillance practices. This paper explores a specific part of Bauman’s task by assessing the impact of the Snowden revelations on confidential source-based journalism. Interviews were conducted with a range of investigative journalists who have experience of covering national security in Five Eyes countries. All expressed serious concern over the intelligence agencies’ greatly enhanced capability to track journalists and to identify and neutralise their sources. The paper concludes that there is clear evidence of a paradigmatic shift in journalist–source relations as those interviewed regard Five Eyes mass surveillance as a most serious threat to the fourth estate model of journalism as practised in Western democratic countries.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. At the time of writing, some 6000 of these documents had entered the public domain.
2. Metadata is defined as the data of data and in this case is information that accompanies and individually defines emails, phone calls, texts and other electronic communications but is not the content data.
3. The author of this paper read Agee’s book in 1976 then met and interviewed Phil Agee in 1977.
4. Search terms used included “Snowden”, “Greenwald”, “Poitras”, “journalism and sources”, “confidential and sources”, “journalist and sources”, “anonymous and sources”.
5. The impact of Snowden’s material on whistle-blowers will be dealt with in a subsequent paper.
6. Dorling is former political adviser, commentator, former government adviser and investigative journalist in Australia.
7. Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to the confidential source who provided information to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post in the early 1970s in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal.
8. Fowler, interview, 10 September 2013.
9. Shane, interview, 17 December 2013.
10. Campbell, interview, 2 January 2014 and follow-up communications.
11. Binney, personal communication, 5 March 2016.
12. Johnson, personal communication, 23 February 2013.
13. The derogatory expression “urinal journalist” was first applied to Chapman Pincher of the Daily Express. Pincher’s journalism has always been controversial and in the 1960s he was the target of historian E. P. Thompson’s famous caustic observation that Chapman was “the urinal where Ministers and officials queued up to leak to”. Urinal journalism is now taken to mean stories based on leaks from government sources who want to spread disinformation or settle Whitehall scores.
14. Whitaker also wrote The End of Privacy: How Total Surveillance is Becoming a Reality (Citation1998).
15. The author also asked questions to interviewees where appropriate about professional practice to protect sources which is for a subsequent paper.
16. Journalists interviewed: Australia: Andrew Fowler; Brian Toohey; Dr Philip Dorling. Canada: Andrew Mitrovica; Jeff Sallot. New Zealand: David Fisher; Nicky Hager. United Kingdom, Duncan Campbell; Christopher Hird; Gavin MacFadyen. United States: Scott Shane; Jeff Richelson.
17. Campbell, interview, 2 January 2014 and follow-up communications.
18. Dorling, interview, 15 January 2014.
19. Hird, interview, 23 December 2013.
20. MacFadyen, interview, 2 January 2014.
21. Fowler, interview, 10 September 2013.
22. Campbell, interview, 2 January 2014 and follow-up communications.
23. Shane, interview, 17 December 2013.
24. Campbell, interview, 2 January 2014 and follow-up communications.
25. Fisher, interview, 21 November 2013.
26. Mitrovica, interview, 6 September 2013.
27. Campbell, interview, 2 January 2014 and follow-up communications.
28. Hird, interview, 23 December 2013.
29. Phone hacking is major journalism scandal in the United Kingdom. Journalists from the News of World were hacking voicemails of a wide range of people for the purposes of stories. The scandal has been detrimental for Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the tabloid News of the World, who shut the paper down in the wake of the exposure. A number of prosecutions are under way at the time of writing. The scandal has spread to other news organisations and has also revealed payments to public officials.
30. Fowler, interview, 10 September 2013.
31. Hird, interview, 23 December 2013.
32. MacFadyen, interview, 2 January 2014.
33. Toohey, interview, 30 December 2013.
34. Richelson, interview, 10 October 2013.
35. Fowler, interview, 10 September 2013.
36. TOR is open software for enabling anonymous communication. The name is an acronym from the original software project name: The Onion Router.
37. Sallot, interview, 10 September 2013.
38. Hager, interview, 31 December 2013.
39. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication.
40. Mitrovica, interview, 6 September 2013.
41. MacFadyen, interview, 2 January 2014.
42. Fowler, interview, 10 September 2013.
43. Fisher, interview, 4 November 2013.
44. Shane, interview, 17 December 2013.
45. Campbell, interview, 2 January 2014 and follow-up communications.
46. Fowler, interview, 10 September 2013.
47. Daniel Ellsberg leaked the “Pentagon Papers” that revealed the United States was losing the Vietnam War.
48. Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks.