Top European Court rules UK web-spying broke human rights rules

The UK government's system of electronic surveillance of its citizens has violated privacy and freedom of speech, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday.

The court ruled that the program could find out far too much about people’s habits and contacts through their online activities, it also said the system lacked oversight and safeguards which undermined privacy and free expression rights.

Judges said that the mass surveillance scheme was not exactly illegal, but its design broke two crucial elements of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case was brought forward by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and over a dozen human rights group after revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who claimed that the system collected, stored and analysed private communications of millions of UK citizens as well as sharing data with American agencies among other things. These revelations were not enough to reign in the UK’s intelligence system.

“This landmark judgment confirming that the U.K.’s mass spying breached fundamental rights vindicates Mr. Snowden’s courageous whistleblowing and the tireless work of Big Brother Watch and others in our pursuit for justice,” Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, according to Fortune.

The court raised concerns about the potential deliberate targeting of journalists’ work by security agencies without the measures to protect their confidentiality.

The Bureau’s managing editor Rachel Oldroyd welcomed the court’s judgment said: “The Bureau believes the freedom of the press is a vital cornerstone of democracy and that journalists must be able to protect their sources. We are particularly concerned about the chilling effect that the threat of state surveillance has on whistleblowers who want to expose wrongdoing, and this ruling will force our government to put safeguards in place. It is an extremely good day for journalism."