Publishing Edward Snowden
In June 2013, UK newspaper The Guardian and its US peer The Washington Post broke a story that changed the world. Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had revealed the scale of mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency [NSA]. GC speaks to Gill Phillips, The Guardian’s director of editorial legal services, about the legal implications of making the story public in the UK.
GC: Obviously the Snowden story was a huge scoop for The Guardian. How did you first hear about it, and what were your initial thoughts?
Gill Phillips (GP): I was actually in Australia as we were in the process of opening our office there. I got a cryptic phone call from Alan Rusbridger [then unieditor-in-chief] one night saying, ‘I can’t really talk about this as using the phone might be unreliable. Could you put me in touch with a US national security lawyer?’ I began to think, ‘Ok, something is going on,’ but I gave him a few names.
