“It is harder than you might think to destroy an Apple MacBook Pro to British government standards. In a perfect world the spies prefer the machines to be dropped into a kind of giant food mixer which reduces them to dust. Lacking such equipment, the Guardian purchased a power drill and angle grinder on 20 July 2013 – and under the watchful eyes of two state observers – ripped them into obsolesence.”
Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger
In June 2013, US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked sensational details of global surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.
The Snowden files revealed a number of programs undertaken by the NSA and its UK counterpart GCHQ that enabled those agencies to collect information stored by major US technology companies, as well as intercepting data from the fibre-optic cables which make up the backbone of global phone and internet networks.
The revelations prompted a groundbreaking series of articles and an international debate about national security, individual privacy and the meaning and value of metadata. These subjects have sprung to the very centre of political debate in Australia where, on 3 September, the story of Snowdon’s extraordinary whistleblowing will be shared for the first time on a Sydney stage by one of the key journalists involved.
Guardian journalist Luke Harding, author of The Snowden Files book, will reveal to David Marr his experiences researching and writing about the Edward Snowden case, including some truly bizarre encounters with global intelligence agencies. They will also discuss the implications for public interest journalism and free speech. In 2014, the Guardian and the Washington Post were jointly awarded the Pulitzer prize for public service for their coverage of the NSA’s activities.
This free event at the Museum of Sydney, co-hosted by Guardian Australia and the Brisbane Writers Festival, will be a fascinating conversation about Snowden and the swirling nexus between public interest, political censorship and national security.
- The Snowden Files: Luke Harding in conversation with David Marr, 3 September at the Museum of Sydney – free but booking essential.
Brisbane Writers Festival runs from 3 to 7 September
