These are slides for a talk to a LSE student society on Ed Snowden and his significance for media and democracy. These are a first attempt to get some thoughts in order so should be seen as exploratory notes rather than some kind of definitive statement - feedback very welcome! It follows up on my 2012 book on WikiLeaks which looked at the history of WikiLeaks but also put it into a wider context of what it means for politics and journalism.

1. Snowden: hero or traitor?
Lessons for media and democracy
Charlie Beckett
@charliebeckett
E: c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk

2. Precedent

3. No more heroes?
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Personalisation of protest
Power of individual in mass media age
Vulnerability of networked authority
Risks of Big Data
Ethical questions for journalists: public interest?
Political questions for democracy: who decides?

4. What Ed did
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2005 Spy for NSA – ‘IT security’ expert
Computer specialist & Ron Paul supporter
2012 working in NSA for Dell $200k pa
2012: contacts Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald
May 2013 Flees US to Hong Kong (now at
Moscow airport)
• June 2013 Guardian begins publication of leaks
• ‘Neither traitor nor hero, I’m an American”

5. What Ed’s leaks told us
• Unknown NSA surveillance programmes such
as PRISM
• Collection of meta-data about phone
conversations and social network use
• US surveillance of non-Americans including
German Chancellor Merkel
• Strategies for more extensive data-gathering
in the future

6. “There is a huge difference between legal
programs, legitimate spying, legitimate law
enforcement — where individuals are targeted
based on a reasonable, individualized
suspicion — and these programs of dragnet
mass surveillance that put entire populations
under an all-seeing eye and save copies
forever. These programs were never about
terrorism: they're about economic spying,
social control, and diplomatic manipulation.
They're about power.”
Ed Snowden, December 2013

7. The effect of Ed
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Pressure on Guardian editor – hard drive smashed
Arrest of Greenwald partner under terrorism law
Public debate in US – but also in UK & elsewhere
Shift in public opinion – esp in Germany
Limited reforms announced by POTUS
Acceptance by Obama of need for more controls over
NSA
• Glenn Greenwald now working with Pierre Omydear on
new investigative journalism org
• Snowden stuck in Moscow

8. The Ed debate
“What I want to know is when the people who
are experts in this, dealing with it all the time,
serving the country and trying to protect us all,
say that this is stuff that should not be in the
public domain, how can you argue that you and
the colleagues at The Guardian that you
consulted are better able to make a judgment
on that?”
Ian Austin MP, December 2013

9. The Ed Debate
• Has he put national security at risk?
• Has he helped enemies of democracy?
• What right does Snowden/Greenwald/Rusbridger
have to decide to publish secrets?
• Does it make legitimate work of govt harder?
• What kind of accountability do we want?
• What kind of transparency do we want?
• Can we trust
Security/Politicians/Corporations/Journalists?

10. What’s new about Snowden?
• Nothing new about leaking
• Nothing new about ‘advocacy’ journalism
• Arguably nothing new about security services
monitoring/using new media technologies
• Balance of power unaffected?
• Majority of UK & US mainstream media
hostile to the leaks

11. What does it tell us about journalism
today?
• Mainstream media still reluctant to critique
security services and the State
• The Internet & digital technology makes it
easier to create a large leak and to publish it
widely
• Mainstream media as well as individuals that
‘transgress’ face strong reaction from the
authorities

12. “Things have happened in this country that
would be inconceivable in parts of Europe or
in America. They include prior restraint. They
include a senior Whitehall official going to see
an editor to say, “There has been enough
debate now”. They include asking for the
destruction of our discs. They include MPs
calling for the police to prosecute an editor.
There are things that are inconceivable in
America under the First Amendment.”
Alan Rusbridger, December 2013

13. What does it tell us about democracy
today?
• Knowledge is still power but it is differently
distributed
• The security services come out of this
operationally challenged but with their power
intact
• There is now an agenda for better oversight
but little political enthusiasm
• The traditional role of MSM as Fourth Estate
questioned – do we have a Fifth Estate?

14. Why we need a watchdog
The conventional model is that journalism
informs and provides a forum for debate. It is
the library and theatre for democracy.
It also has a role to hold power to account even if that means breaking rules or the law –
in the public interest. When you lose that then
the first two functions become valueless.

15. Snowden: hero or traitor?
Lessons for media and democracy
Charlie Beckett
@charliebeckett
E: c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk