ABSTRACT
In this chapter we investigate the meeting place between the worlds of espionage and spying, and journalism. It could be said that this involves a joint conference of two of the world’s oldest and most reviled professions, although law and prostitution sometimes compete in these bottom rankings. Spies and journalists are somewhat alike in their skills, talents and functions. They collect and analyse information. Journalists are supposed to do so with transparency and an aspiration to impartiality. Spies, by their very nature, dissemble, deceive, lie and cover up. The British writer Malcolm Muggeridge had the privilege of being an outstanding exponent in both professions and he advised that ‘Diplomats and Intelligence agents, in my experience, are even bigger liars than journalists, and the historians who try to reconstruct the past out of their records are, for the most part, dealing in fantasy.’ (Muggeridge 1975: 163) He also warned that ‘Secrecy is as essential to Intelligence as vestments and incense to a Mass, or darkness to a Spiritualist séance, and must at all costs be maintained, quite irrespective of whether or not it serves any purpose.’ (Ibid.: 133)
All nation-states in the world define and preserve the notion of ‘national security’ and ‘national interest’ with a range of draconian criminal laws and civil legal powers to pursue breaches of confidentiality and attempts to derive financial advantage from undermining it. It is also apparent that international agreements setting out worthy rubrics on human rights frequently qualify them in terms of national security. Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights – Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Assembly and Association are both subject to restrictions ‘prescribed by law and necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety’. The ECHR in Strasbourg has a tendency to give its signatory states more discretion or ‘margin of appreciation’ on
matters of national security than on matters of freedom of expression, privacy and reputation.
