Read Rusbridger’s entire, riveting account here.

Thankfully, the Guardian has copies of these documents, and will now do its valuable reporting from its offices in New York City and elsewhere. "We will continue to do patient, painstaking reporting on the Snowden documents, we just won't do it in London,” Rusbridger stated. But the fact that the GCHQ knew their actions couldn't stop publication, but did it anyways reeks of the worst kind of government intimidation. Make no mistake: essentially forcing a newspaper’s editor into exile over a report it doesn’t like sounds like a story from the 18th century reign of King George III, not of a supposed 21st century democracy.

While this episode exposes despicable and ignorant actions taken by the UK government—again, actions that are normally reserved for the worst of authoritarian regimes—we should also take notice of journalistic bravery on the part of Rusbridger and his Guardian staff.

Rusbridger has had the courage to keep publishing in the face of government pressure, prior restraint, and possibly the financial stability of his newspaper. He is commendably putting his newspaper at risk to get the truth to the world’s citizens. We need more editors like him.

But perhaps we should take solace in the fact that by so clearly abusing its power, the UK government faces a stronger likelihood that the Guardian’s reporting will force change. "You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more," as one government official condescendingly told Rusbridger. The irony is there has barely been any debate in London over the scope of NSA/GCHQ spying, unlike the United States. But now — thanks to their ill-thought out detention of Greenwald’s partner and this deplorable assault on a journalism institution — they can be sure much more debate is coming.