Detention of David Miranda

My colleague asked me this morning if I was interested in recording a video about David Miranda's detention.

David Miranda is the partner of Glenn Greenwald, who is better known as the journalist responsible for writing the stories in the Guardian about Edward Snowden.

However this week David was detained at Heathrow airport for just under nine hours under the UK Terrorism Act. He was passing through Heathrow on transit on his way home to Brazil. 

Schedule 7 gives officers power to question a person at an airport if they believe the person concerned involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

There appears to be no that authorities truly believed that Miranda is a terrorist, which suggests that his detention and questioning at Heathrow is down to the Snowden story.

Thailand Criminal Defense Lawyer 

Chaninat and Leeds specializes in international criminal cases in Thailand

Schedule 7 does not provide authority to detain and question partners of journalists simply because the state disapproves of the articles written by said journalist or the source of the information. 

This got me thinking whilst I was researching the story. I live and work in Thailand, but will be visiting friends and family in the UK over Christmas. However I have no desire to be detained by UK authorities when I land at Manchester airport.

Now clearly Greenwald is a much bigger fish to fry than me, but he has suggested this week that the detention of his partner was purely for intimidation reasons. The fact that it led to me question with my colleague whether this was a story I should step away from suggests that if this was the objective, then it has clearly worked.

The news this week has certainly made me question just how much further are authorities going to abuse their power in the future?

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Flickr photo credit: eGuide Travel