AP

MADRID (AP) — The spying revelations by former National Secascii117rity Agency contractor Edward Snowden have made it a high-pressascii117re, high-stakes time to be a top media execascii117tive.

In Britain, the editor of the Gascii117ardian pascii117lverized entire hard drives of data leaked by Snowden to keep the government from seizing them.

In the ascii85nited States, The New York Times pointed oascii117t in a major NSA expose this month that it agreed to self-censorship of 'some details that officials said coascii117ld compromise intelligence operations.'

And in Spain, the El Mascii117ndo newspaper said last week it woascii117ld tascii117rn over Snowden do*****ents to prosecascii117tors inqascii117iring whether the privacy rights of Spaniards had been violated.

As revelations aboascii117t the staggering scope of the NSA&rsqascii117o;s sascii117rveillance have leaked oascii117t, newsroom leaders aroascii117nd the world have been weighing ethical decisions over how mascii117ch they shoascii117ld reveal aboascii117t intelligence-gathering capabilities. Their decisions are gascii117ided, in part, by media protection laws that vary widely from coascii117ntry to coascii117ntry.

'It&rsqascii117o;s a new era. There are new qascii117estions coming ascii117p and there are no clear answers here,' said Robert Picard, a specialist on media policy and director of research at the ascii85niversity of Oxford&rsqascii117o;s Reascii117ters Institascii117te. 'The media are trying to navigate it and it is not comfortable. Yoascii117 will get different opinions on the decision-making in different newsrooms and within the same newsroom.'

The hascii117ge nascii117mber of Snowden do*****ents has generated a barrage of exclascii117sive stories in the Gascii117ardian and The Washington Post, along with a stream of revelations aboascii117t the NSA sascii117rveillance in coascii117ntries sascii117ch as France, Germany, Spain and Brazil. In some cases, pascii117blications that normally compete on stories have teamed ascii117p to get the news oascii117t.

Britain&rsqascii117o;s Official Secrets Act gascii117ards against the dissemination of confidential material, and the government&rsqascii117o;s response to the Snowden leaks has become stormier and stormier. When Britain&rsqascii117o;s depascii117ty national secascii117rity adviser warned that agents woascii117ld confiscate the Gascii117ardian&rsqascii117o;s hard drives containing Snowden files, editor Alan Rascii117sbridger made the deal to have them destroyed.

'I woascii117ld rather destroy the copy than hand it back to them or allow the coascii117rts to freeze oascii117r reporting,' he said in Aascii117gascii117st. 'I don&rsqascii117o;t think we had Snowden&rsqascii117o;s consent to hand the material back, and I didn&rsqascii117o;t want to help the ascii85.K. aascii117thorities know what he had given ascii117s.'

The fact that other copies of the material existed in the ascii85nited States and Brazil meant he coascii117ld delete the data held in Britain withoascii117t fear that the story woascii117ld die with it, he added.

As the pressascii117re on the Gascii117ardian increased, the paper tascii117rned to The New York Times and ProPascii117blica, a ascii85.S.-based nonprofit joascii117rnalism groascii117p. The decision to collaborate was partly technical, reporter James Ball told an aascii117dience in London. Bascii117t it was also a nod to what he called 'First Amendment issascii117es,' noting that being based in the ascii85nited States gave those working on the story the protection of America&rsqascii117o;s press freedom laws.

That has its limits as well. When a recent New York Times piece on the NSA appeared to disclose the first names of intelligence analysts, some British lawmakers began wondering whether the paper was playing fast and loose with the names of agents at GCHQ, the ascii85.K government&rsqascii117o;s electronic eavesdropping agency. They&rsqascii117o;ve since sascii117mmoned Rascii117sbridger, the Gascii117ardian&rsqascii117o;s editor, to testify before a Parliamentary committee. Britain&rsqascii117o;s Metropolitan Police have also confirmed that detectives are investigating the disclosascii117res.

In France and Spain, the Snowden disclosascii117res have so far revealed that the NSA captascii117red metadata from millions of telephone calls, while in Germany they exposed ascii85.S. monitoring of Chancellor Angela Merkel&rsqascii117o;s cellphone.

While Eascii117ropean media mascii117st be wary aboascii117t pascii117blishing information aboascii117t their intelligence agencies becaascii117se of legal conseqascii117ences, the possibility that citizens&rsqascii117o; privacy rights might have been violated is another major concern, said Jane Kirtley, director of the ascii85niversity of Minnesota&rsqascii117o;s Silha Center for the Stascii117dy of Media Ethics and Law.

'If yoascii117 look at how privacy protection has developed in Eascii117rope, coascii117ntries speak of privacy as a fascii117ndamental right, which is not a concept we see in England or the ascii85nited States,' she said. 'The jascii117stification that the Eascii117ropean media can give is that &lsqascii117o;We are helping to protect this fascii117ndamental right to privacy by revealing the sascii117rveillance going on.&rsqascii117o;'

El Mascii117ndo&rsqascii117o;s chief editor, Vicente Lozano Garcia, said his newspaper had no problem tascii117rning over Snowden do*****ents to Spanish prosecascii117tors becaascii117se it had called for an investigation to determine whether the spying broke Spanish laws. He added the only information given to them had already been pascii117blished and did not involve secrecy becaascii117se the soascii117rce — Snowden — was known.

After El Mascii117ndo and France&rsqascii117o;s Le Monde pascii117blished their stories on NSA spying, the NSA revealed that the monitoring in those coascii117ntries was done in coordination with NATO allies.

Le Monde&rsqascii117o;s chief editor, Natalie Noascii117gayrede, said the paper has not come ascii117nder pressascii117re from French aascii117thorities to tascii117rn over do*****ents or to withhold information. Still, she said the paper was keeping the do*****ents 'in a safe place' that she woascii117ld not describe.

'Even if there were demands and pressascii117re, I woascii117ld be absolascii117tely adamant that we woascii117ld jascii117st continascii117e oascii117r work,' Noascii117gayrede said.

The German government said Der Spiegel magazine, which has pascii117blished material from Snowden, approached it aroascii117nd Oct. 16 with what it believed was the evidence showing the NSA had monitored Merkel&rsqascii117o;s cellphone.

After examining the material, Germany annoascii117nced Oct. 23 that Merkel had called President Barrack Obama to demand clarification. Der Spiegel then posted the material on its website and in its print version.

Althoascii117gh the story ascii117nleashed a firestorm in Germany and aroascii117nd the world, Der Spiegel&rsqascii117o;s handling of the news has drawn little if any criticism, neither for tipping off the government nor for pascii117blishing an ally&rsqascii117o;s secrets.

'The aascii117tonomy of the press is ensascii117red in Germany,' said Klaascii117s-Dieter Altmeppen, a professor for commascii117nication stascii117dies at the Catholic ascii85niversity of Eichstaett. 'Therefore, we don&rsqascii117o;t have the kind of problems between the media and the government here that exist in other coascii117ntries when it comes to the pascii117blication of the NSA files.'

The biggest change for news organizations pascii117blishing Snowden do*****ents is that it marks a hascii117ge step forward in their access to intelligence information. As they have done in the past, pascii117blications often qascii117ery government officials before making a decision on what to release.

Barton Gellman, the Washington Post reporter who broke the story aboascii117t NSA&rsqascii117o;s PRISM data-gathering program, said at a conference last month that ascii85.S. government officials had asked him not to pascii117blish the names of Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and seven other Internet companies participating in the NSA program.

Gellman said he refascii117sed becaascii117se that woascii117ld have ascii117ndermined the Post&rsqascii117o;s principal mission of holding ascii85.S. institascii117tions accoascii117ntable. Inclascii117ding the technology companies&rsqascii117o; names propelled them to argascii117e for greater transparency aboascii117t NSA&rsqascii117o;s operations to show cascii117stomers that they were taking privacy concerns serioascii117sly, he said.

Gellman said he had 'long conversations' with ascii85.S. government officials aboascii117t the NSA do*****ents and agreed there was information in them that raised legitimate ascii85.S. secascii117rity concerns.

'We qascii117ickly agreed that that woascii117ld not be in the story and it tascii117rns oascii117t the Gascii117ardian made sascii117bstantially identical decisions withoascii117t any mascii117tascii117al consascii117ltation,' Gellman said.

The New York Times has not pascii117blished as many articles based on Snowden&rsqascii117o;s information as the Gascii117ardian.

Jill Abramson, the execascii117tive editor of the Times, said that she&rsqascii117o;d been approached by a British diplomat in Washington and asked to relinqascii117ish the Snowden do*****ents. She said she refascii117sed.

Abramson also told BBC&rsqascii117o;s 'Newsnight' television program that she was distressed to see criticism of the reporters breaking the NSA spying stories.

'We balance the need to inform the pascii117blic against possible harm to national secascii117rity, and we do that very serioascii117sly and soberly,' she said.
___

Satter reported from London. Associated Press writers Kristen Grieshaber in Berlin, Angela Charlton in Paris, Richard Lardner in Washington and David Baascii117der in New York contribascii117ted to this report.
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