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The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) issued a secret DA-notice on June 7, 2013 on the Snowden leaks.
UK TO BRIT HACKS: SHUT UP
Defence Ministry Warns Against Leaks on Joint US-Brit Spying
(AND Magazine) – A British Defense Ministry press advisory committee, reacting to a flurry of revelations in the American press about massive warrantless US government electronic surveillance programs, quietly warned UK organizations not to publish British national security information.
Defiance of the advisory could make British journalists vulnerable to prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.
The June 7 “DA-Notice,” or Defence Advisory Notice, which was itself confidential, accepted that the U.S. National Security Agency was sharing information gleaned from the surveillance programs with its British counterparts, and said UK intelligence organizations were worried about revelations of their own roles in the programs.
DA-Notice, June 7, 2013
Private and Confidential: Not for publication, broadcast or use on social media.
Defence Advisory Notice
There have been a number of articles recently in connection with some of the ways in which the UK Intelligence Services obtain information from foreign sources.
Although none of these recent articles has contravened any of the guidelines contained within the Defence Advisory Notice System, the intelligence services are concerned that further developments of this same theme may begin to jeopardize both national security and possibly UK personnel…
It warned British media not to publish information on “specific covert operations, sources and methods of the security services, SIS and GCHQ [the NSA’s British counterpart], Defence Intelligence Units, Special Forces and those involved with them, the application of those methods, including the interception of communications and their targets; the same applies to those engaged on counter-terrorist operations.”
British news organizations are concerned about the tenor of the advance warning.
(Reporters Committee) Fall 2006 – In November 2005, Britain’s attorney general threatened British newspapers with prosecution if they published the contents of conversation between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussing their disagreements about the Iraq war.
They used the threat of the Official Secrets Act, a World War I-era British law that prohibits disclosing government information without “lawful authority.”
The Blair government had never before used prosecution as a tool to persuade editors to halt publication, although it had obtained court orders preventing the publication of sensitive documents regarding the Iraq war.
Throughout the history of the Official Secrets Act, the British government has used the act to charge reporters with crimes, prevent important stories from being published or broadcast, and punish government officials who leak to news organizations.
The law is aimed less at journalists than at their sources. But experts such as Alistair Bonnington, a Scottish media lawyer with BBC Scotland, say that when authorities use the law to threaten editors or silence sources, it prevents the dissemination of information. “Any time the act is used, it has a chilling effect.”
- A twin diary posted – NSL Gag Orders and the 1st Amendmant US Constitution.
