Detention of David Miranda highlights danger of state-regulated press, says Guardian director of editorial legal services Gill Phillips
The detention of a Guardian journalist’s partner following the publication of leaked American security information from whistleblower Edward Snowden should be a warning signal against any notion of state-regulated press, according to the Guardian’s director of editorial legal services, Gill Phillips.
Comments: The Guardian's Gill Phillips spoke at a London conference
Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, was detained under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for nine hours last month and had many of his personal items confiscated.
“If anything demonstrates why we do not want a government regulating the press, David Miranda is that,” said Phillips.
“We live in a democratic state and they still did what they did to David Miranda for no good reason at all. It goes back to the whole debate about why we shouldn’t have the state regulating the press.”
Phillips added that the Leveson Inquiry had come up with “the worst of all worlds” and it had been “disastrous”.
“His attempt to please everybody and avoid being a dusty footnote on a shelf somewhere has led him down a road that has proved to be pretty disastrous,” she said.
Phillips made the comments when addressing the Protecting the Media conference in London.
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