{"id":1083,"date":"2008-07-09T00:10:27","date_gmt":"2008-07-08T23:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2008-07-08T21:30:27","modified_gmt":"2008-07-08T20:30:27","slug":"bbc-guidance-on-the-regulation-of-investigatory-powers-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2008\/07\/bbc-guidance-on-the-regulation-of-investigatory-powers-act\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC guidance on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Royal ArmC<\/span>ryptome<\/strong><\/a> carries an email apparently sent to BBC staff over reporting of councils<\/a> and their use<\/a> of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The ECU [Editorial Complaints Unit<\/a>] is upholding a complaint against BBC News for describing the above Act as a piece of “anti-terrorism legislation” which was passed “in 2000 as the threat of global terrorism was on the rise”. Please refrain from using these phrases in future coverage of the Act as the first is wrong, the second is misleading.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the act was to give legal structure to surveillance following the introduction of the Human Rights Act. The surveillance was aimed at serious criminals and, though terrorists would fall into
\nthe category, it is wrong to describe this as anti-terror legislation.<\/p>\n

Equally RIPA was passed at a time when British law enforcement agencies were more concerned with potential threats from dissident IRA followers than a more global threat so it is misleading to imply that
\nglobal terror was a significant factor in prompting the legislation.<\/p>\n

Should you need to describe the purpose of the Act in brief terms it would be better to say it “covers all sorts of serious crime”.<\/p>\n

More detail from A&R [Analysis & Research]<\/p>\n

To confirm, the Act is not a piece of anti-terror legislation rather it more wide ranging, creating powers to monitor criminals. According to the Home Office website: “The Regulation of Investigatory Powers
\nAct (RIPA) legislates for using methods of surveillance and information gathering to help the prevention of crime, including terrorism.”<\/p>\n

The Home Office goes on to say RIPA makes provision for:
\n*\tthe interception of communications
\n*\tthe acquisition and disclosure of data relating to communications
\n*\tthe carrying out of surveillance
\n*\tthe use of covert human intelligence sources
\n*\taccess to electronic data protected by encryption or passwords
\n*\tthe appointment of Commissioners and the establishment of a
\ntribunal with jurisdiction to oversee these issues<\/p>\n

[Source Home Office: http:\/\/security.homeoffice.gov.uk\/ripa\/about-ripa\/<\/a>]\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cryptome carries an email apparently sent to BBC staff over reporting of councils and their use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[15,1612,1611,1613,1614,1610],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","tag-bbc","tag-editorial-complaints-unit","tag-encryption","tag-home-office","tag-law-enforcement-agencies","tag-regulation-of-investigatory-powers-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}