United Nations representatives have expressed concern that Britain might be using its need to protect government secrets to "intimidate the press into silence." The UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression says the press plays a central role in clarifying human rights abuses. He and the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism have spoken out in the wake of British detention of David Miranda, the partner of former U.S. security employee Edward Snowden.
Bolivian journalists are protesting a new government bill that would permit authorities to declare developments off-limits to reporting in the country. GlobalPost reports that demonstrations were held in Bolivian cities Wednesday against the bill that would prevent material deemed sensitive from being disclosed.
A new Pew study looks at how people pursue their desires for privacy online. Andrew Beaujon, writing for Poynter, notes the study found that one-quarter posted comments anonymously. All told, 86 per cent have taken steps to remove or mask their digital footprints. One-fifth have had their social network or email accounts compromised.
Mathew Ingram, writing for GigaOm, looks into the little-noted criminal proceedings against Barrett Brown, charged for reposting a link on an Internet Relay Chat channel. The link went to documents stolen from an intelligence consulting firm. Brown was attempting to crowdsource contract information. Ingram calls his case even more outrageous than those of Edward Snowden or James Risden.
Jessica Meyers, writing for Politico, looks at the free-speech record of Jeffrey Bezos, the new owner of the Washington Post, in his capacity as Amazon founder. Meyers notes that Amazon pulled WikiLeaks off its servers and the curious search results from its China site. She says there is some anxiety about Bezos as he adopts his role.