NUJ signs joint letter opposing plans to break end-to-end encryption

The NUJ has signed a joint letter to Liz Kendall, UK technology secretary, highlighting the threat of breaking end-to-end encryption on journalists and journalism.

The letter was sent ahead of a parliamentary debate in Westminster on the Online Safety Act (OSA) on 15 December.

The NUJ has previously called on the UK government to make effective use of the Act to maintain journalistic standards and better protect journalists from online abuse and threats.

While the union welcomes provisions aimed at maintaining standards and preventing abuse, the plan to weaken encryption has significant implications for press freedom and journalists’ safety.

The full letter states:

As reporters and organisations representing the interests of media workers and the broader rights of free expression and privacy, we have come together to highlight the extreme danger that the UK’s plan to break end-to-end encryption poses to investigative journalism and even to the lives of journalists.

Cases such as Breen v PSNI (2009) have shown that reporters - particularly those who report on terrorism and criminal gangs - may face a serious threat to their lives if they cannot guarantee source protection, and as such can claim legal rights under Article 2 and Article 10 of the ECHR.

The current proposal by the UK government would mean that UK-based reporters using end-to-end encrypted services such as Signal, WhatsApp and other vital tools, would be forced to deal with government-mandated vulnerabilities in messaging systems that much of the rest of the world considers secure.

In an age of global media, but also international organised crime and rising transnational repression by autocratic states, the UK, which for centuries has provided a home for free speech and free media and a haven for dissidents seeking refuge from the secret police of their own lands, risks becoming the place where freedom dies.

As MPs gather to debate this potentially disastrous law, we urge the government to rethink its dangerous encryption-breaking law which endangers journalism and journalists at home and around the world.

Signed,

Index on Censorship

National Union of Journalists (UK)

International Press Institute

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

Global Forum for Media Development

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (Italy)

Carole Cadwalladr (personal capacity) Association of European Journalists (AEJ)

Big Brother Watch (UK)

Open Rights Group (UK)

Electronic Frontier Foundation

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