U.K. Ordered Guardian to Destroy Snowden Files Because Its Servers Weren’t Secure

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2. Rusbridger: destroying hard drives allowed us to continue NSA coverage

Rusbridger: destroying hard drives allowed us to continue NSA coverage

Guardian editor-in-chief says he agreed to 'slightly pointless' task because newspaper has digital copies outside Britain

Josh Halliday

Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor-in-chief, has said that the destruction of computer hard drives containing information provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden allowed the paper to continue reporting on the revelations instead of surrendering the material to UK courts.

Rusbridger told BBC Radio 4's The World at One on Tuesday that he agreed to the "slightly pointless" task of destroying the devices – which was overseen by two GCHQ officials at the Guardian's headquarters in London – because the newspaper is in possession of digital copies outside Britain.

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"It was a rather bizarre situation in which I explained to them that there were other copies and, as with WikiLeaks, we weren't working in London alone so destroying a copy in London seemed to me a slightly pointless task that didn't take account of the way that digital information works these days," said Rusbridger.

"Given that there were other copies and we could work out of America, which has better laws to protect journalists, I saw no reason not to destroy this material ourselves rather than hand it back to the government."

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http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/20/guardian-editor-alan-rusbridger-nsa

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023498667