Only 1% of files leaked by former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden have been published by the Guardian newspaper, its editor has told MPs.
Alan Rusbridger told the Home Affairs Select Committee the Guardian was not a “rogue newspaper”.
He insisted the paper’s journalists were “patriots” and he hailed the UK’s democracy and free press.
But a government spokesman said later it still believed that publishing the material had damaged national security.
Mr Rusbridger told MPs that senior officials in Whitehall, the US administration and the US senate’s intelligence committee had told the paper “no damage” had been caused.
He also said criticism about damage to national security made by intelligence chiefs at a different committee hearing had been “very vague and not rooted in specific stories”.
“There are different views about this,” he said. “It’s impossible to assess because no one has given me specific evidence.
