Human Rights and Terrorism in the UK - Miranda Rights

By Jamie Barr, L6

David Miranda is accused of being terrorist. He is the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald who has covered many stories based on leaks by US whistleblower Edward Snowden. On the 18^th of August Miranda was stopped in Heathrow, while changing planes from Berlin to Rio De Janeiro, and detained for up nine hours under the law 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The reason for him being detained was because it was believed he was carrying secret documents. Further, controversy was caused because he was detained for the full nine hours compared to the usual of less then seven hours. His lawyers are arguing his detention of the maximumperiod allowed was a misuse of schedule seven and breached his humanrights. In response the case is being taken to the high court.

Former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, who was involved in inducing the act, said the powers were intended to be used against individuals who are or might be terrorists.

The connection to Edward Snowden is that he is a former contractor at the US National Security Agency, leaked details of extensive Internet and phone surveillance by American intelligence services. According to the Guardian he passed “thousands of files” to Greenwald. Acting upon this new found information he has written several stories about surveillance by US and UK authorities.

An ITN report about the issue here:

Reporters interviewed both Greenwald and Miranda about being detained. Greenwald said the authorities “spent the entire day asking about the reporting I was doing and other Guardian journalist were doing on the NSA stories”, while Miranda said he was questioned about his “whole life”. Greenwald has accused the authorities of “bullying” and the intent of the situation was simply to “intimidate”. The Guardian and several senior UK politicians and the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC, have demanded a full explanation and believe also it was unnecessary and a breach of human rights. In response to the situation the home secretary Theresa May said it was right for the authorities to act if they believe someone has “highly sensitive stolen information”.

In, conclusion I personally believe that he should have been detained as if a person presents a risk of terrorism then it should be acted on immediately. However, I question the use of the full nine hours as he was only carrying journalistic material and surely that would have been discovered much sooner. Therefore, the breaching of David Miranda’s human rights does come into question.

This case is very helpful to a politics student as it provides proof that we should have a constitution, as it would set out basic human rights. This case can therefore be used as an example in a constitutional based essay that is arguing for a constitution as in this case David Miranda’s rights were tested.

[Editor's Note: You'll find a Q & A from the BBC here]