The British intelligence agency GCHQ captured the email correspondence of journalists at major media organizations in the U.S. and U.K., including The New York Times, The Guardian, Reuters, BBC, and the Washington Post.
On Monday, one affected outlet, The Guardian, revealed the findings obtained through Snowden documents. The emails were collected in a November 2008 “test exercise” by GCHQ that captured 70,000 emails in less than 10 minutes one day.
The emails were gathered through one of GCHQ's taps on the fibre-optic cables that “make up the backbone of the internet,” The Guardian reported. The obtained emails of journalists entailed everything from PR email blasts, to discussions about stories between editors and reporters, the outlet said.
The Guardian added that “there is nothing to indicate whether or not the journalists were intentionally targeted,” as the emails were among 70,000 amassed by GCHQ that day.
