Reporters' spy saga gives glimpse of UK surveillance culture

DARLINGTON, England (AP) — British journalist Julia Breen's scoop about racism at her local police force didn't just get her on the front page, it got her put under surveillance.

A minority officer, Sultan Alam, was awarded 800,000 pounds in 2012 (then worth $1.26 million) after allegedly being framed by colleagues in retaliation for a discrimination lawsuit.

Britain's wiretapping watchdog — the Interception of Communications Commissioner's Office — revealed in 2015 that 82 journalists' communications records had been seized as part of leak investigations across the country over a three-year period.

The watchdog said those figures were "artificially inflated" by the investigation into Britain's tabloid bribery scandal, which centered on industrial-scale abuses by journalists working for London-based titles.

Last March, a senior Scottish police official resigned after it was revealed that his force failed to seek proper approval for a media leak investigation.

While Cleveland Police were combing through Breen's calls, for example, the U.S. Department of Justice was rifling through the telephone records of Associated Press journalists in an attempt to learn who leaked them details of a botched al-Qaida bomb plot.

Cleveland Police, which declined interview requests ahead of the judgment, did not immediately return messages seeking comment, but a statement posted to its Facebook page it noted the force was reviewing its internal affairs department as well as the past six years' worth of police surveillance work.

Speaking ahead of the judgment, Matthews said he was pleased lawyers and journalists now enjoy judicial oversight of police requests for their call records, protection they didn't have in 2012.

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