National Security and Citizen’s Rights: Walking towards a Dystopian Orwellian State?

Abstract

Surveillance measures, seen sometimes as Orwellian strategies, have been implemented due to the fact that governments want, among others, to tackle terrorism, organised crime, and illegal immigration. Nevertheless, those are at the centre of an ongoing debate as many scandals have appeared recently related with the disputed practices applied by certain intelligence agencies. When this indiscriminate and irresponsible use of mass surveillance practices take place -in which it seems that we are all carrying our own “pocket sensors”- a question that summarises quite much the subject arises: are we walking towards a “dystopian Orwellian state” when applying measures that affect our very essence of the right to privacy? To solve this enigma, it is crucial to analyse the national surveillance programmes under the European legal framework of fundamental rights and freedoms in order to determine if the above-mentioned practices successfully overcome or not a “dystopian state test”.