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The legitimacy of intelligence surveillance: the fight against terrorism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

DOI:10.1080/02684527.2019.1634389
Authors:
Martin Kovanic at Office for Whistleblower Protection
Martin Kovanic
  • Office for Whistleblower Protection
Aneta Coufalova at Mendel University in Brno
Aneta Coufalova
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Abstract

The activities of intelligence services and the expansion of their powers have moved to the center of public debates since the terrorist attacks in Europe. Major discussions have been focused on the mechanisms of mass surveillance, which entail the infringement of individual rights. The purpose of this article is to compare how surveillance powers of intelligence services in the Czech Republic and Slovakia developed in the context of fight against terrorism. Intelligence services in both countries tried to expand their surveillance powers and these attempts have been met with criticism from the political opposition, civil society and courts.
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The legitimacy of intelligence surveillance: the fight against terrorism in the Czech Republic
and Slovakia
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target=10.1080/02684527.2019.1634389
... The package came in a series of proposals from both the Ministry of the Interior and the Slovak Information Service, arguing that the expansion of surveillance rights is necessary to fight terror. These attempts were often problematic from the point of view of democratic legitimacy, making use of both extraordinary legislative process and indirect amendments to laws (Kovanič and Coufalová 2020). ...
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... Such guarantees can also contribute to increased protection of human rights. The goal of this chapter is to discuss the barriers against overcoming the culture of secrecy in the area of surveillance (Kovanic and Coufalova 2019) with particular focus on Poland, where debates about the Snowden revelations have not succeeded in making surveillance practices more transparent (Gruszczak 2017). ...
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