US whistleblower Edward Snowden testified from Moscow by live video-link at a parliamentary hearing on “mass surveillance” that took place at 2 p.m., Tuesday 8 April, on the margins of the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg.
Other participants at the hearing, organised by PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, included the former head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service Hansjörg Geiger, who has proposed a “codex” to regulate intelligence activities between friendly states, and London-based international law professor Douwe Korff.
“Edward Snowden has triggered a massive public debate on privacy in the internet age,” said Pieter Omtzigt(Netherlands, EPP/CD), who is preparing two separate reports on mass surveillance and on whistleblowers for the Assembly. (more...)