Snowden files destroyed

The British authorities forced The Guardian newspaper to destroy material leaked by Edward Snowden, its editor has revealed, calling it a "pointless" move that would not prevent further reporting on US and British surveillance programmes.

In a column yesterday, editor Alan Rusbridger said he had received a call from a government official a month ago who told him: "You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back."

The paper had been threatened with legal action if it did not comply.

Later, two "security experts" from the secretive Government Communications Headquarters had visited the paper's London offices and watched as computer hard drives containing Snowden material were reduced to mangled bits of metal.

Asked by the BBC whom he thought was behind those events, Rusbridger said he had "got the sense there was an active conversation" involving government departments, intelligence agencies and the prime minister's office.

Downing Street and GCHQ refused to comment.

Rusbridger said the "bizarre" episode and the detention at London's Heathrow airport on Sunday of David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, showed that press freedom was under threat in Britain.

The nine-hour detention of Miranda, in transit from Brazil, under an anti-terrorism law, has caused a furore.

Brazil, British opposition politicians, human-rights lawyers and press-freedom watchdogs are among those who have denounced it.

Greenwald was the first journalist to publish US and British intelligence secrets leaked by Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor who is wanted in the US and has found temporary asylum in Russia.

Snowden's leaks have revealed details of NSA and GCHQ surveillance of global communications networks. Washington and London say their security agencies act within the law and the leaks are a threat to national security.

Miranda, who was on his way from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with Greenwald, was questioned for nine hours before being released without charge, minus his laptop computer and memory sticks, and his cellphone.

He had been ferrying materials obtained from Snowden between Greenwald and Laura Poitras, an independent filmmaker based in Berlin who has published reports based on Snowden material.

Miranda has launched legal action against the British police and government to question the legal basis of his detention and stop the authorities from viewing, copying or passing on his data, his lawyer said.

The Guardian's Rusbridger said the destruction of the computer material was "pointless" because there were copies of what was lost and it would not stop The Guardian from carrying Snowden stories.