The South African Civil Society Information Service

Glenn Greenwald on the Role of Journalism

28 Oct 2013

Glenn Greenwald says that his team knew early on when working on the Edward Snowden/NSA exposé that the story was going to be as much about the role of journalism as it was going to be about the role of surveillance. Greenwald made his remarks via an exclusive video message from Brazil to the Frontline Club in London that was celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special awards ceremony. "We knew that there would be a great debate that would take place over the proper relationship between journalistic outlets and government, between people who call themselves journalists and those in power. And what the responsibilities and obligations are for people who want to do actual adversarial investigative journalism," Greenwald says.

© Frontline Club

Editor's Note: Following the news that Greenwald will be the recipient of generous funding from eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar, to start a new kind of investigative journalism organisation - adverserial journalism - the role of journalism is indeed being discussed and debated both in the industry and on public platforms. This weekend The New York Times published a debate between Greenwald and the editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller, in an article titled, "Is Glenn Greenwald the Future of News?".

You might also be interested in Greenwald's views on the U.S. spying on its allies, which he discusses with Democracy Now!

Read more articles filed under Videos.

Read more articles tagged with: Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden, whistle-blowing.

You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1826.