Hack watch

In tandem with a new book on the Blair/Brown leaderships in Britain, which concludes that Orwell’s 1984 seems to be held on Downing Street as a how-to manual of governance, evidence obtained by The Guardian newspaper brings forth compelling evidence that U.K. police have not only been databanking the attendees of political gatherings and protests, but also the journalists there to cover such events.

A police surveillance tape obtained by The Guardian shows officers keeping tight watch on the identities of protestors at a 2008 climate camp, but even greater attention is paid to press members and what agencies they’re representing. In their off-camera musings, the police can be heard condemning the journalists.

“They think they can bloody wander in and out the field. It’s wrong,” says one officer, adding that he “trusts them less than the protestors.” Several journalists had already complained that police followed them after they’d covered a protest and filmed them as they filed their reports over a restaurant’s WiFi.

“We’ve put this to police and Home Office several times, but they have always denied the practice,” says National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear. “With this evidence, there is no credibility in doing so any longer.”

by SCOTT SAXON