British Ministry challenged over phone-tapping |
CIVIL liberty groups in Ireland and Britain are to challenge the British Ministry of Defence over its illegal eavesdropping on private telephone calls. |
| By Eddie Cassidy Irish Examiner  The groups are concerned that new legislation in Britain, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, fails to provide adequate safeguards to protect individual privacy from activities such as phone-tapping.Although Britain has abandoned its controversial electronic test installation in Cheshire, human rights groups such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties warn about eavesdropping on an even greater scale through a sophisticated US-British surveillance system, Echelon. A Channel 4 documentary two years ago claimed the Cheshire installation had intercepted telephone, fax, e-mail and data communications between Ireland and Britain between 1990 and 1997. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the British-Irish Rights Watch and London-based Liberty are concerned that new laws offer Britain’s security and intelligence agencies greater powers to intercept private communications. The groups instigated proceedings last June in the European Court of Human Rights. They are seeking a declaration that the civil rights of their staff and clients had been breached by phone-tapping activities over the last decade. The unprecedented challenge by the groups is aimed at creating greater safeguards to protect private communications. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson yesterday referred to assurances given by Britain to former Foreign Minister David Andrews in January 2000 that no blanket interception of telecommunications messages had taken place. |