December 16 2019, 12:01am,The Times

Edward Lucas

Devices that cant be hacked or traced are precious to those who live under repressive regimes

Thirty years ago this week I was an unwilling guest of the Securitate, the Romanian secret police. My interrogators wore ill-fitting brown suits, smelt bad and behaved worse. I freely admitted that I had entered the country illegally but for good reason: to report the imminent downfall of their regime. Instead of deporting me, I suggested, it would be prudent to switch sides: I could guarantee that their actions would be front-page news. They scoffed. I told them to turn on the shortwave radio they had confiscated. The BBC and other foreign stations were already broadcasting details of the mushrooming uprising against the Ceausescu dictatorship.

I was right: the regime would fall within days. But Romanian secret policemen had little practice in exercising initiative. They

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My shortwave radio still speaks of freedom | Comment - The Times