Alan Rusbridger on spies, spooks, and the Assange saga

Curveball

“We bought computers that had never been connected to the internet. Phones were taken out of the room and I unplugged everything, including televisions and fridges. At one point the cabinet secretary pointed out through my window to a block of flats across the water and said, ‘You realise the Chinese will be in there and they’ll have a laser on that tumbler of water, and they’ll have turned it into a microphone. They can listen to what we’re saying now’. So the curtains came down immediately. At home, I did the same. I unplugged everything. And if I wanted to talk to my wife, we went out into the woods. We did all the things that spies are supposed to do.”

Alan Rusbridger was the editor of The Guardian newspaper when a whistle blower called Edward Snowden reached out with documents suggesting the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US was spying on its own civilians. The extraordinary claims landed them in hot water with governments in both the US and the UK, and ultimately forced Snowden into exile in Russia where he remains today, more than a decade on.

So what’s it like when you’re the one responsible for hitting publish on the most explosive story of the decade? One that involves spies and spooks, encrypted messages, and an international hunt for both the source of the story and the journalists who broke it?

Alan Rusbridger is now the editor of Prospect Magazine, the chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and a member of Facebook’s Oversight Board. He’s been at the forefront of journalism’s transition to the digital and social world – all while juggling this century’s most complex stories in news.

Rusbridger also describes the time he played Chopin in a deserted hotel in Libya while waiting for officials to negotiate the release of a missing Guardian journalist, why he believes Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be released from prison, and the legacy of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

+++

Curveball features revealing conversations with leaders about their challenges and their successes. It’s a production of Deadset Studios.

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.

And friends, don’t forget you can also sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter! And we’d love you to suggest a Curveball guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com

This episode was produced by Liam Riordan. Executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Country on which this podcast is made, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's first storytellers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.