WIEDER AND GUARNIERI v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT he was temporarily out of the country, and analysed after his return, the State would have jurisdiction in respect of the analysis but not in respect of the original interception. There was no rational basis for this distinction, which made little sense in view of the fact that the proliferation of online communications had deprived national borders of their meaning. (ii) The third party intervener 85. Media Defence submitted that Article 1 of the Convention should be interpreted in a manner that responded to the challenges of State conduct of cyber operations and the consequential implications for media freedom  namely, the fact that such operations were capable of intercepting journalistic communications and related data that could identify journalists’ sources. Modern day journalism routinely involved investigations across multiple jurisdictions and technological developments had strained the legal frameworks designed to protect journalists and the confidentiality of their sources. 86. According to Media Defence, the notion of “State agent authority and control” should not be interpreted so as to give rise to arbitrary distinctions. In their view, there was no difference between State agents overpowering a journalist while he was abroad in order to secure information on his person, and using sophisticated technology to obtain that same information. In both scenarios, the aim and outcome of the operation was the same. (iii)The Court’s assessment (α) General principles 87. The exercise of jurisdiction is a necessary condition for a Contracting State to be able to be held responsible for acts or omissions imputable to it which give rise to an allegation of the infringement of rights and freedoms set forth in the Convention (see H.F. and Others v. France, [GC], nos. 24384/19 and 44234/20, § 184, 14 September 2022 and Catan and Others v. the Republic of Moldova and Russia [GC], nos. 43370/04 and 2 others, § 103, ECHR 2012 (extracts), and the references therein). In the recent case of H.F. and Others v. France (cited above, §§ 185-88), which concerned a decision by France not to repatriate a number of its nationals who were living in camps in north-eastern Syria, the Grand Chamber identified the following general principles: “185. As to the meaning to be given to the concept of ‘jurisdiction’ for the purposes of Article 1 of the Convention, the Court has emphasised that, from the standpoint of public international law, a State’s jurisdictional competence is primarily territorial. It is presumed to be exercised normally throughout the territory of the State concerned. In line with Article 31 § 1 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, the Court has interpreted the words ‘within their jurisdiction’ by ascertaining the ordinary meaning to be given to the phrase in its context and in the light of the object and purpose of the Convention. However, while international law does not exclude a State’s 26