Aug. 18, 2013
(CNN) — The partner of Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper who broke the story about secret surveillance programs in the United States, was held at London’s Heathrow Airport on Sunday.
The detention was reported by The Guardian, which said that David Miranda, 28, was held for nearly nine hours. He was reportedly passing through the airport on his way home to Brazil after leaving Berlin.
Before releasing him, authorities seized Miranda’s laptop, cell phone, video game consoles and USB sticks, Greenwald wrote for The Guardian.
“This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism,” he said.
“It’s bad enough to prosecute and imprison sources. It’s worse still to imprison journalists who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic. Even the Mafia had ethical rules against targeting the family members of people they felt threatened by.” Read more
