UK must justify GCHQ's spying activities

UK must justify GCHQ's spying activities to European Court of Human Rights

by KATIE COLLINS

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights have ordered UK government ministers to justify GCHQ's mass surveillance programmes.

The government will have until the beginning of May to provide submissions to the court, in order for it to make a judgement over whether its activities violated the right of privacy, as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights.

Article 8 of the convention dictates that everyone has "a right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence", and that no public authority may interfere with the exercise of this right, except in accordance with the law.

The government must prove that their actions are "within the law", by attempting to justify the treatment of data that has been intercepted by UK or foreign intelligence agencies, with particular reference to the NSA-run Prism programme, and Tempora, GCHQ's equivalent initiative.

The case has been fast-tracked by the ECHR after beingbrought about last October by a group of campaigners including Big Brother Watch, the Open Rights Group, English PEN and German internet activist Constanze Kurz. Working together as part of the Privacy not Prism campaign, they argue that GCHQ has acted illegally by collecting so much data from British and European citizens, including the content of social media messages. They hope that judges will make a ruling by the end of the year.

The campaigners welcomed the decision by the ECHR today, with Jo Glanville, director of English PEN, saying the organisation was "delighted" that the European Court of Human Rights had made the case a priority. "This only ever happens in a minority of cases and is a measure of the significant international concern about the UK's unchecked surveillance," she said.

Daniel Carey, Solicitor at Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors, who represent the applicants, said: "The European Court of Human Rights has acted remarkably quickly in communicating the case to the Government and designating it as a priority. It has also acted decisively by requiring the Government to explain how the UK's surveillance practices and oversight mechanisms comply with the right to privacy."

Activist Kurz added: "The European Court of Human Rights expects fast answers from the British government. It is vital now that human rights and the respect of the privacy of millions of people will also be prioritized not only by the British government and parliament but also at EU level."

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-01/24/gchq-must-justify-prism