In an article in today’s Guardian, editor Alan Rusbridger reports that the newspaper was coerced into destroying material that related to its revelations about state surveillance.

The Chief Executive of Index on Censorship, Kirsty Hughes said:

“Using the threat of legal action to force a newspaper into destroying material is a direct attack on press freedom in the UK. It is unclear which laws would have been used to force the Guardian to hand over its material but it is clear that the Snowden and NSA story is strongly in the public interest. Coming on the back of the detention of David Miranda, it seems that the UK government is using, and quite likely misusing,  laws to intimidate journalists and silence its critics.”