Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Miranda v SSHD also have regard to the applicant’s conduct, including whether he identified himself as a journalist.” 63. The fact that the applicant was not “readily identifiable as a journalist prior to his apprehension” was one of the factors that led the court to decide that the domestic authorities had struck a fair balance between the competing interests at stake. Accordingly, the apprehension, detention and conviction of the applicant were justified and not a violation of article 10. 64. I do not find this a surprising approach for the ECtHR to have taken and I agree with it. It would be unreasonable to criticise an authority for failing to give weight to the importance of the freedom to publish journalistic material if the authority did not know (and could not reasonably have known) that it was journalistic material. It is, therefore, necessary to examine the evidence to see whether the MPS knew or ought to have known that Mr Miranda was in possession of journalistic material. 65. The examining officers were only aware of the information that was contained in the final PCS. This said nothing about the nature of the material except that its release would endanger people’s lives and that its disclosure or the threat of its disclosure was designed to influence a government and was made for a political or ideological cause. It did not refer to Mr Snowden, Mr Greenwald, the Guardian or journalism. Moreover, when he was questioned by the examining officers, Mr Miranda did not say that he was a journalist or that the material that he was carrying was journalistic material. 66. Det Supt Stokley was, however, aware of the contents of the NSJ, which did refer to the assessment that Mr Miranda was carrying items which would “assist in GREENWALD releasing more of the NSA and GCHQ material we judge to be in GREENWALD’s possession”. 67. Although Mr Miranda was not a journalist, he worked very closely with Mr Greenwald who was. Det Supt Stokley knew this and that the Security Service had made the assessment stated in the NSJ that Mr Miranda was carrying items that would assist in Mr Greenwald releasing more of the material that was judged to be in Mr Greenwald’s possession. Mr Miranda therefore appeared to Det Supt Stokley to have in his possession journalistic material. In my view, the fact that the examining officers were not aware that Mr Miranda was or might be carrying journalistic material is not a trump card in the hands of the defendants. I can see no justification for disregarding the knowledge and belief of those who were directing the examining officers when considering whether the MPS knew or believed that Mr Miranda was carrying journalistic material. In view of what Det Sup Stokley knew, the balancing exercise must be conducted on the basis that the material was or might have been journalistic material. The assessment of the threat to national security The judgment of the Divisional Court 68. At para 52 of his judgment, Laws LJ said that, on the evidence, the stop was “a pressing imperative in the interests of national security”. The external hard drive