The editors of Helsingin Sanomat, Denmark’s Politiken, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and Norway’s Aftenposten signed the open letter, which is also published today on the Guardian’s website.
In it, the editors criticised the UK government’s actions in detaining David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who worked on the Snowden revelations. They confiscated his data and laptop and started a criminal investigation.
The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger also said that UK intelligence officials had supervised the destruction of a computer hard drive at the Guardian offices, but that in the digital age that would not affect the paper’s ability to report the information Snowden had passed on.
”It is deeply disturbing that the police have now announced a criminal investigation,” wrote the editors. ”We hope this is not to be seen as a step against journalists doing journalism. The implication of these acts may have ramifications far beyond the borders of the UK, undermining the position of the free press throughout the world.”
The full English text of the letter is available here.