CMCS Hosts Event on Journalism, Whistleblowing, and Mass Surveillance

On May 16 CMCS organized a public event with the title ‘Journalists and Whistleblowers in an Era of Mass Surveillance’ to discuss issues relating to the national security based arguments states use to justify their mass surveillance programs and how it impacts the rights of journalists and whistleblowers.

The event consisted of two panels featuring several speakers, among them Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services for Guardian News & Media Limited, Peter Noorlander, Chief Executive of the Media Legal Defence Initiative, and OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović who was particularly concerned about the UK government’s reaction to The Guardian’s involvement in publishing some of the Snowden leaks on NSA surveillance. You can find out more about the OSCE’s position here, and watch the full-length video of the event below.

The conference was organized in the framework of CMCS’s research project Strengthening Journalism in Europe: Tools, Networking, Training that focuses on enhancing legal support and resources for European journalists and media outlets facing threats and violations of their editorial freedoms and freedom of expression rights.