In an effort to illuminate the NSA’s effect on free expression, PEN America Centre recently surveyed its US members on their feelings about the NSA’s unbounded reach. The resulting report, “Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives US Writers to Self-Censor,” reveals that 88% of the writers polled are troubled by the NSA’s surveillance programme, and that 24% have avoided certain topics in email and phone conversations. Most disturbingly, 16% of those answering the survey said they had abandoned a project given its sensitivity.
The survey is troubling on many levels. First, it’s deeply dismaying that any writer would give up so easily – that any writer would be so readily cowed into submission. After all, to date, the NSA’s surveillance hasn’t landed any writers in jail, and, though there’s no doubt a watchlist, so far no one on PEN’s membership has been hauled in for questioning based on their phone calls, searches or internet activity. But living under the cloud of suspicion, or wondering not if, but when this collected data will be misused, runs, shall we say, counter to the idea of freedom of expression in a democracy.
The recent petition by Writers Against Mass Surveillance, issued last week and signed by 562 writers around the world, is an essential step toward an international digital bill of rights. But until there is such a thing, there will be hundreds of millions of people, writers among them, living under the assumption that every inquiry or communication they make could later be used against them.
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