GCHQ has opened up on the record for the first time. And its chosen vehicle is the Times. What’s going on?The UK surveillance agency GCHQ had only a small public relations team up until June 2013. As the most secretive of the intelligence agencies,it did not really need anything more. The duties were not arduous, with inquiries from the national media invariably met with a blunt refusal to comment.
That attitude has not survived the shock of former CIA and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, or who leaked tens of thousands of documents exposing GCHQ’s innermost secrets. Today,GCHQ’s unusual and expanding PR team is increasingly sophisticated, open to engagement with journalists in ways that were inconceivable before Snowden. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com