The senior counterterrorism official at the United Nations, Ben Emmerson, is launching a probe into the surveillance activities of the intelligence agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom.

The investigation, announced by Emmerson in a Guardian piece on Monday, will lead to a host of recommendations, to be presented before the UN general assembly next fall. Those recommendations will concern topics such as whether Edward Snowden should be given the legal protection of a whistleblower or whether his leaks have damaged national security in any of the two countries.

“The astonishing suggestion that this sort of journalism can be equated with aiding and abetting terrorism needs to be scotched decisively,” he wrote.

[Guardian]