The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don't only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself, when the most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control.

Laura Poitras

Categorized in : U.S.

Certainly, when it comes to my profession as a journalist, that allows the government to trace what you're reporting, who you're talking to, and where you've been. So no matter whether or not I have a commitment to protect my sources, the government may still have information that might allow them to identify whom I'm talking to.

government talking commitment

I was in correspondence with an anonymous source for about five months and in the process of developing a dialogue you build ideas, of course, about who that person might be. My idea was that he was in his late forties, early fifties. I figured he must be Internet generation because he was super tech-savvy, but I thought that, given the level of access and information he was able to discuss, he had to be older.

generations levels ideas

So my first experience was that I had to do a reboot of my expectations. Like fantastic, great, he's young and charismatic and I was like wow, this is so disorienting, I have to reboot. In retrospect, I can see that it's really powerful that somebody [Snowden] so smart, so young, and with so much to lose risked so much.

smart powerful expectations

One of the most frightening things, I think, is the capacity for retroactive searching, so you can go back in time and trace who someone is in contact with and where they've been.

go-back-in-time capacity thinking

In terms of sources coming forward, I really reject this idea of talking about one, two, three sources. There are many sources that have informed the reporting we've done and I think that Americans owe them a debt of gratitude for taking the risk they do.

gratitude talking thinking

The free software community should be supported more widely. I’m totally in solidarity with what they do.

solidarity community should

I don't speak Arabic - I know a little to get by, but that's all. by Laura Poitras

I don't speak Arabic - I know a little to get by, but that's all.

speak knows littles

We’re seeing this expansion of what non-fiction can be in storytelling, i think they're more thrilling than a lot of fiction films.