From Monday 14 October 2024, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) says bodies such as MI5 and MI6 must get independent authorisation from the Investigatory Powers Commissioner before searching for or holding onto confidential journalistic material they obtain through ‘bulk’ interception of data and hacking people’s devices.
The Home Office has tightened surveillance laws following a seven-year legal challenge from human rights organisation Liberty, supported by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The Investigatory Powers Act 2016, known by many as the Snoopers’ Charter, enabled state bodies to handle and examine journalistic material unchecked. The new safeguard – which the previous Government conceded was necessary during the legal challenge and was introduced by the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024 – will better protect communications between journalists and their sources, added the NUJ.
Liberty will now withdraw this part of its long-standing legal battle against the 2016 legislation, the NUJ continued.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said earlier this week: “Today’s triumph is welcomed by the NUJ and follows our significant support in this case, urging improved protections for journalists and their confidential material.
“It is right that new safeguards will ensure journalists and their sources are better protected from the covert monitoring and retention of data that jeopardised their safety and posed wider harm to media freedom. Today’s win marks a pivotal moment in ensuring journalists can conduct their work safely and we will continue our engagement with this government, opposing all harmful threats to journalism arising from surveillance.”
Katy Watts, Liberty lawyer, said: “This is a huge victory for the rights of journalists and press freedom in the UK. It is vital for a functioning democracy that journalists and their sources can be sure their correspondence is confidential.
“We’re pleased to have put a stop to almost a decade of spy agencies hoovering up and treating journalistic material however they wish, but remain deeply concerned about the unfettered mass surveillance of the rest of the population. The Government must now build on today’s good news and end the practice of bulk surveillance in its entirety.”
Background
In 2019 the NUJ says it, on behalf of its members, intervened in Liberty’s challenge to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, to argue that the “bulk hacking” powers in the IPA did not properly safeguard journalistic sources and material from the risk of surveillance by the police, security and intelligence agencies.
The case was heard in front of a Divisional Court in June 2019, but the Court rejected Liberty and the NUJ’s arguments on the absence of sufficient protection for journalists. Liberty and the NUJ appealed that decision to the Court of Appeal.
On 4 August 2024, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal but ordered that part of the case be remitted back to the Divisional Court for fresh consideration. That part concerns whether the provisions relating to “bulk hacking” of devices by the police, security and intelligence agencies, so far as they relate to confidential journalistic material, are compatible with Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (which protect the right to respect for private and family life and correspondence and the right to freedom of expression respectively).
As a result of Liberty and the NUJ’s ongoing challenge, the government conceded that provisions relating to bulk hacking warrants as they related to journalistic material, were incompatible with Articles 8 and 10 ECHR. To remedy this, they agreed to enact new legislation containing additional safeguards for journalistic material.
The NUJ says Shamik Dutta and Caleb Simpson of Bhatt Murphy, Ben Jaffey KC of Blackstone Chambers, and David Heaton and Sophie Bird of Brick Court Chambers act for Liberty.
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