The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is asking a European court to rule on whether UK legislation properly protects journalists' sources and communications from government scrutiny and mass surveillance. 

British spooks are routinely collecting all communications for detailed analysis inevitably means that some data involving journalists will be swept up. BIJ lawyer Gavin Millar explains said that no one knows anything about what GCHQ does with the journalistic information it pulls in. This is because, startlingly, neither the legislation nor government guidance about its use says anything at all about this.

Some of GCHQ's minute analysis of the data will be giving it selective access to confidential journalistic material and identifying sources. Coppers increasingly seek to access such information for their own purposes. It is an easy way of advancing their investigations. It can help to identify and deal with embarrassing whistleblowers and can forewarn of awkward stories in the offing. The same is true for the security and intelligence agencies.

Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights give strong protection to the right to privacy and to freedom of expression.

Article 10 right can only be overridden by an order of a judge. And the journalist must first have the opportunity to argue before the court that there is no competing public interest which makes such an order necessary.

The UK law that governs this area, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), is outdated, and does not comply with those rules. If the European Court of Human Rights rules in favour of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the British government will be required to review the regulations around the mass collection of communications data and to update the anachronistic RIPA.