Writers & artists join demand to end NSA and GCHQ mass surveillance

By Dilip -
Stephen Fry will join 40 free speech groups and other high-profile authors and artists on Tuesday to demand an end to the masssurveillance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. They will urge European leaders to take a stand against industrial-scale spying by US and British intelligence agencies.
Author AL Kennedy, artist Anish Kapoor and blogger Cory Doctorow are also among those who have signed a petition asking government heads to discuss the issues raised by Snowden when they meet at the European Council in October.
Fry said Snowden's disclosures raised fundamental issues for Europeans: "Privacy and freedom from state intrusion are important for everyone. You can't just scream 'terrorism' and use it as an excuse for Orwellian snooping."
Started by London-based group Index on Censorship, the petition urges government leaders to "clearly and unambiguously state their opposition to all systems of mass surveillance including the Prism system." The petition says such surveillance techniques are "an attack on our freedom of speech and an invasion of our privacy."
Files leaked by Snowden show the British eavesdropping centre GCHQand its American counterpart the National Security Agency have developed capabilities to undertake mass surveillance of the web and mobile phone networks.
This is done by trawling the servers of internet companies and collecting raw data from the undersea cables that carry web traffic.
Two of the programmes, Prism and Tempora, can sweep up vast amounts of personal data, which is shared between the two countries... read more:

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