Archived seminar
10 March 2015: Annual Fuller Lecture: the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Criminology welcome Luke Harding and Jodie Ginsberg (Departmental Seminar Series)
Luke Harding (Foreign Correspondent with The Guardian) and Jodie Ginsberg (Chief Executive of Index for Censorship)
At 16:00 in LTB8.
Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with The Guardian. He is one of an international team of journalists to have covered the leaked NSA files. Publications include: WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011), Mafia State: How One Reporter Became An Enemy Of The Brutal New Russia (2011), The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man (2014).
Jodie Ginsberg is chief executive of Index on Censorship, an international organisation that uses a unique combination of journalism, campaigning and advocacy to defend freedom of expression for those facing censorship and repression. Index was a forceful voice in support of The Guardian when it exposed the use of mass surveillance as revealed by the NSA whistle blower, Edward Snowden.
It began with an unsigned email: "I am a senior member of the intelligence community”.
What followed was the most spectacular intelligence breach ever, brought about by one extraordinary man, Edward Snowden. The consequences have shaken the leaders of nations worldwide, from Obama to Cameron, to the presidents of Brazil, France, and Indonesia, and the chancellor of Germany.
Edward Snowden, a young computer genius working for America's National Security Agency, blew the whistle on the way this frighteningly powerful organisation uses new technology to spy on the entire planet. The spies call it "mastering the internet". Others call it the death of individual privacy.
This is the inside story of Snowden's deeds and the journalists who faced down pressure from the US and UK governments to break a remarkable scoop.
Snowden's story reads like a globe-trotting thriller, from the day he left his glamorous girlfriend in Hawaii, carrying a hard drive full of secrets, to the weeks of secret-spilling in Hong Kong and his battle for asylum. Now stuck in Moscow, a uniquely hunted man, he faces US espionage charges and an uncertain future in exile.
What drove Snowden to sacrifice himself? Award-winning Guardian journalist Luke Harding asks the question which should trouble every citizen of the internet age.
Tuesday 10 March 2015, from 4.00pm to 5.30pm, Department of Sociology, room LTB8 followed by a buffet and drinks.
All welcome to attend.