The Guardian has released a video of its editors destroying hard drives containing files related to Edward Snowden under the supervision of GCHQ on 20 July.
The clip shows video snippets taken in the Guardian’s basement interspliced with footage of editor Alan Rusbridger answering questions at the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Deputy editor Paul Johnson said: “It was purely a symbolic act. We knew that. GCHQ knew that. And the Government knew that. It was the most surreal event I have witnessed in British journalism.”
The release of the video coincides with the publishing of The Snowden Files by Luke Harding, a foreign correspondent at the Guardian.
Harding claims the Guardian “took the decision to destroy its own Macbooks after the government explicitly threatened the paper with an injunction”, according to the paper.
Files leaked by Snowden included material from GCHQ and American intelligence agency the NSA, provoking much discussion about the extent of British and American spying.
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