Warning

U.N. to U.K.: Stop Harassing the Press

Demand info on detention of Greenwald’s partner.

Two senior U.N. representatives have sent a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron demanding an explanation of the detention of David Miranda, the partner of Guardian writer Glenn Greenwald, when he was transporting documents leaked by Edward Snowden through London’s Heathrow airport. The officials, special rapporteurs Frank La Rue and Ben Emmerson, warned the U.K. that national security was not an excuse to harass or intimidate journalists. "The press plays a central role in the clarification of human-rights abuses,” said La Rue. La Rue and Emmerson said the case revealed that the U.S. and the U.K. are unprepared to deal with citizens getting access to classified information.