On Saturday, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that it had viewed a document obtained by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, in which the agency wrote that it had spied on Qatar-based Arab news broadcaster Al Jazeera. This appears to be the first confirmation that the NSA has used its powers to secretly monitor media outlets.

Der Spiegel did not publish any of the documents in question, but it noted that one was dated March 23, 2006 and showed that “the NSA's Network Analysis Center managed to access and read communication by 'interesting targets' that were specially protected by the news organization. The information also shows that the NSA officials were not satisfied with Al Jazeera's language analysis.” Der Spiegel also reports that in one of the documents, the NSA refers to this operation as a “notable success” because the targets of the operation had "high potential as sources of intelligence."

It is not clear whether the surveillance is ongoing or whether the operation was a one-off. The extent to which journalists and managers at Al Jazeera were spied on is also not clear from the Spiegel report.

Al Jazeera, as Spiegel notes, has been broadcasting audio and video communication from al-Qaida leaders for many years, which may have been a potential vector of interest for the spy agency. Since the Snowden leaks broke, however, this report is the first confirming NSA surveillance of a major media outlet.

Earlier Snowden leaks showed that the NSA had allegedly bugged other targets, such as the European Union headquarters in Washington, DC and Brussels, and it has tapped internal United Nations video communications as well.