The British government was struggling Tuesday to defend the airport detention of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner David Miranda while he was transiting through Heathrow airport, as he launched legal action against his nine-hour ordeal.
The furore over his detention has built into a debate on media freedom over national security issues as Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger claimed Tues-day that GCHQ agents were sent to the newspaper’s head office by the top echelons of the UK government to destroy hard drives with data leaked by American whistleblower Edward Snowden. He said government agents told him: “You’ve had your fun. Now we want the stuff back.” Mr Rusbridger said he agreed to destroy the data as the newspaper had electronic copies outside the UK in order to continue its coverage of the story. The Guardian editor also revealed Mr Miranda had “journalistic material” with him when he was detained at Heathrow.