This year’s “Big Brother Awards” have named Cabinet Secretary Sir Richard Wilson as “WORST PUBLIC SERVANT” for 2002. The decision of judges was announced tonight (Monday) at an award ceremony in the Hong Kong Theatre of the London School of Economics.

The Big Brother awards were established in 1998 as a means of recognising both the villains and the heroes of privacy. They are hosted each year by the LSE, and are presented by Channel 4’s Mark Thomas. The awards are organised by Privacy International, a human rights watchdog formed in 1990 (see www.privacyinternational.org).

Sir Richard received his award for his “long standing commitment to opposing freedom of information, data protection and ministerial accountability”. He narrowly beat David Blunkett and Michael Cashman MEP.

Awards were also bestowed in the following categories:

• MOST INVASIVE ORGANISATION
  
  Norwich Union This award has been given following last year’s controversy over the use of unapproved genetic tests to assess eligibility for life insurance. Norwich has also won the award because of its “Pay as you Drive” ™ satellite vehicle tracking project. It came ahead of the other contenders The Countryside Alliance and the Internet Watch Foundation.
  
  
• MOST APPALLING PROJECT
  
  This goes to the National Criminal Intelligence Service for its plan to archive the communication data (phone, email and internet traffic data) of all UK citizens. The Integrated Transport Commission and the Electoral Reform Society were runners-up.
  
  
• MOST HEINOUS GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION
  
  This was scooped by the Department for Education and Skills for removing anonymity in the 2002 national schools census and for creating a student tracking system. Runners up were The Internet Watch Foundation and The Home Office.
  
  
• LIFETIME MENACE
  
  Although Michael Howard and Sir Richard Wilson were extremely strong contenders this year, but the award has gone to the National ID card concept. Judges stressed that they were most concerned about the potential of this ongoing proposal to allow the mass-matching of personal files throughout the government and private sector.
  
  

Privacy International’s Director, Simon Davies, said “The judges have been appalled at the depths to which this year’s candidates have sunk.”

“During the judging process, it has become clear that government agencies and companies have stooped to an all time low in the wilful violation of our privacy”

“We have been almost overwhelmed this year by a flood of new entries, many of which involve technologies and techniques that are beyond the control of law, and outside the comprehension of policy makers”

WINSTON AWARDS

On a far more promising note, the award ceremony honoured five individuals and organisations that had made an outstanding contribution to the protection of privacy and human rights. These “Winston” winners are:

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH’S ‘FREE COUNTRY CAMPAIGN’. The DT last year started a campaign against restrictions on personal liberties. Since then – and despite September 11th – the paper has stuck by this position and modified its editorial stance on a wide range of issues from drug law reform and surveillance through to police powers and CCTV.

MAURICE FRENKEL, Director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, for his outstanding contribution over many years to the establishment of FOI legislation in Britain.

DAVID SHAYLER for services at great personal cost to opening up the secret state and for his role in challenging the fairness and legality of the Official Secrets Act.

ILKA SCHRODER, a German Greens MEP who has consistently fought to defend citizens against state intrusion. She has been a key figure in the European Parliament’s investigation into the “Echelon” spying system run by the American National Security Agency.

THE LORD PHILLIPS OF SUDBURY (Andrew Phillips) has works tirelessly for many years on initiatives to build civil society and to promote and defend the integrity of the judicial system. Last year he was instrumental in forcing reforms to the governments anti-terrorism legislation.

JUDGES OF THE 2002 AWARDS

• Karen Banks, Co-ordinator, GreenNet
• Caspar Bowden, Director, Foundation for Information Policy Research
• Dr Ian Brown, University College London
• Tony Bunyan, Editor, Statewatch, London
• Duncan Campbell, Freelance film and television producer,
• Simon Davies, Director, Privacy International
• Dr Fleur Fisher, Ethics and healthcare consultant, London
• Wendy Grossman, Author Net.Wars
• Gus Hosein, London School of Economics
• Malcolm Hutty, Internet Vision
• Dr Stephen Saxby, Law School, University of Southampton
• Dr Edgar Whitley, London School of Economics
• Dr Steve Wright, Director, Omega Foundation

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The Big Brother Awards are now in their fourth year, and have been established in the UK, the US, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, France, Denmark and the Netherlands. Further information can be found at www.bigbrotherawards.org and on the PI website at www.privacyinternational.org/bigbrother/

The initiator of the awards, Privacy International, was founded in 1990, and campaigns on a wide range of privacy issues across the world.

The 4th UK awards took place in the Hong Kong Theatre of the London School of Economics (ground floor, 97-99 The Aldwych) on Monday March 4th at 7pm.

Simon Davies can be reached on 07958 466 552 and on simon@privacy.org