THREE of Britain's most prominent campaign groups have announced the launch of a legal challenge against the actions of GCHQ — which has a listening station near Bude — alleging it has illegally intruded on the privacy of millions of British and European citizens.

GCHQ has a satellite ground station located at Morwenstow, which comprises 21 satellite antennas of various sizes. A European Parliament report, made public in 2001 claimed that 'Morwenstow is responsible for industrial espionage and the interception of civilian communications'.

Big Brother Watch, the Open Rights Group and English PEN, together with German internet activist Constanze Kurz, have filed papers at the European Court of Human Rights bringing an action against the UK Government.

For the full report, and a round up of the area news and sport, see this week's edition of the 'Post'.