14 DAY TRIAL // It was about high time for this to happen – the UN is finally taking action. The United Nations’ senior counter-terrorism official is going to launch an investigation into the surveillance powers of the United States and United Kingdom as exposed by the Snowden files.
Ben Emmerson QC, the UN special rapporteur, said that his inquiry would also try to discover if the British parliament was misled about what the GCHQ was capable of, as well as whether the oversight system set in place was strong enough to meet the United Nation’s standards, the Guardian reports.
Given Emmerson’s previous statements, the report won’t look too good for the NSA and the GCHQ. His opinion is that the issues disclosed through reporting based on the leaked documents from Edward Snowden are at the “very apex of public interest concern,” as expressed in an interview for the Guardian.
He has also expressed a harsh opposition to the “astonishing suggestion” that the media coverage on the topic can be qualified as aiding and abetting terrorism. "It is the role of a free press to hold governments to account, and yet there have even been outrageous suggestions from some Conservative MPs that the Guardian should face a criminal investigation. It has been disheartening to see some tabloids giving prominence to this nonsense,” he said.
Today, Alan Rusbridger, Guardian editor, is to appear before the members of the parliament to answer questions about the paper’s reporting on the role that the GCHQ has played in the NSA leaks. As a reminder, the British newspaper is the first to report on the topic as Glenn Greenwald, one of the few who have been in contact with Edward Snowden from the start, worked for the publication.
A report will be handed over to the UN general assembly from 2014.