{"id":13181,"date":"2023-06-27T08:57:39","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T08:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1397719"},"modified":"2023-06-27T08:57:39","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T08:57:39","slug":"eu-set-to-approve-disturbing-new-media-surveillance-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=13181","title":{"rendered":"EU set to approve \u2018disturbing\u2019 new media surveillance law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EU member states have approved draft legislation allowing governments to spy on journalists in the name of \u201cnational security.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The Council published a draft of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) last week that would extend media surveillance powers, including placing spyware on journalists\u2019 phones.<\/span><\/p>\n

The original purpose of the EMFA was to safeguard media independence and pluralism. First presented by the Commission last September, the act was <\/span>hailed<\/span><\/a> as a major step forward for the protection of press freedom. <\/span><\/p>\n

But earlier this month, <\/span>France introduced an exception to the ban on deploying spyware against journalists, provided it was used in the interests of national security. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The exemption would allow member states to hack into journalists\u2019 phones if they suspect their sources could be talking to criminals involved in anything the state perceives to be a threat. <\/span><\/p>\n

A broad array of crimes, ranging from murder to theft and music piracy, will now be considered as legal justification for using surveillance software on reporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

P<\/span>ress freedom advocates have <\/span>warned<\/span><\/a> these last-minute changes could \u201copen the door to all sorts of abuses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The European Federation of Journalists, which <\/span>represents<\/span><\/a> some 320,000 journalists from across 45 countries, said it was \u201cdisturbed\u201d by the \u201cdangerous loopholes\u201d in the Council\u2019s proposal. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows a disregard for media freedom principles,\u201d it said, <\/span>arguing that such legislation would put journalists and their sources even more at risk<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, went so far as to say that the addition of a national security exemption to the EMFA was a \u201cdanger to journalism\u201d and \u201cwould poison this law from within.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the EU Commission <\/span>told<\/span><\/a> reporters last week that he would \u201cnot comment on every step of the legislative process,\u201d when asked about the concern that now spyware could be used against journalists. <\/span><\/p>\n

EU ambassadors will now take the draft legislation to the European Parliament to assemble the final text. <\/span><\/p>\n

The European Commission <\/span>welcomed<\/span><\/a> the agreement by the bloc\u2019s member states and called for the draft legislation to become law soon. <\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU member states have approved draft legislation allowing governments to spy on journalists in the name of \u201cnational security.\u201d  The Council published a draft of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}