Edward Snowden, spying on citizens and freedom of the press …

Edward Snowden

FILE - This June 9, 2013 file photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, in Hong Kong. Snowden says his "mission's already accomplished" after leaking NSA secrets that have caused a reassessment of U.S. surveillance policies. Snowden told The Washington Post in a story published online Monday night, Dec. 23, 2013, he has "already won" because journalists have been able to tell the story of the government's collection of bulk Internet and phone records. (AP Photo/The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, File)

(Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras via AP)

Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the National Security Agency's secret surveillance of U.S. citizens.

FILE - This Dec. 4, 2012 file photo shows Guardian newspaper editor Alan Rusbridger in London. The Obama administration knew in advance that the British government would oversee destruction of a newspaper's hard drives containing leaked National Security Agency documents last year, newly declassified documents show. The White House had publicly distanced itself from doing the same against an American news organization. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the British news organization The Guardian, made sure the world heard it.

The files Snowden stole from the NSA revealed the agency collected phone records in bulk, gained secret access to data kept by private companies such as Google and Facebook, cracked Internet encryption codes and listened in on the private phone calls of 35 world leaders. The British spy agency GCHQ also was implicated. And there likely are more revelations to come.Rusbridger traveled to Syracuse Wednesday to accept the Tully Award for Free Speech from the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. After publishing the Snowden material, the editor was threatened with espionage charges, grilled by a parliamentary commission and forced to smash computers containing the stolen files. He may still be under police investigation.

Alan Rusbridger (left), editor-in-chief of The Guardian, is interviewed by Roy Gutterman (right), executive director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014, at the Newhouse school on campus. Rusbridger accepted the Tully Free Speech Award for publlishing NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about NSA spying.

Rusbridger and The Guardian also led reporting on the State Department files leaked by Wikileaks and the phone hacking scandal that rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

In an informal question-and-answer session with Tully Center Executive Director Roy Gutterman, Rusbridger talked about his dealings with Snowden, the changing world of journalism and the challenges facing a free press.

On how the story came to The Guardian: Rusbridger says it began with a willingness to work with a new breed of journalist, Glenn Greenwald.

... Glenn Greenwald is not a conventional journalist. He's a lawyer, a blogger, an activist, he lives in Rio (de Janeiro, Brazil). At the point that we hired him, he had an avid following of about a million of his own people, and he was not a conventional journalist by any stretch of the imagination. But we thought he was interesting figure and we wanted to harness that.

There's a lot of American news organizations that wouldn't touch Glenn Greenwald with a barge pole. And so that's why I link the story to just that -- the hiring of Glenn Greenwald. Edward Snowden, when he wanted to make contact with journalists, didn't go to (The New York) Times, didn't go to a conventional news outlet, he went to somebody he thought would do justice to the story.

On how they got the NSA files: Greenwald and Guardian reporter Ewen McAskill traveled to Hong Kong to meet with Snowden. After 48 hours of "speed-dating,'' they were convinced Snowden was who he said he was and that the documents he had were genuine.

Snowden began by selecting one or two things that he thought were particularly significant. And after that ... it was a case of, "Here is the stuff. I'm coming to you as journalists because I think journalists are the people who should define what the public interest is here, and I'm not going to guide you any further.''

On the difference in responses by the British and U.S. governments: Rusbridger said you can't just "ring up'' the British spy agency to discuss publication of secrets, so they published first and waited to be contacted. When it became clear the British government would try to restrain publication of more stories, The Guardian enlisted a U.S. partner, The New York Times. The NSA and the White House, by contrast, were much more accessible.

The facade of Newhouse III at Syracuse University is emblazoned with the text of the First Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The NSA didn't (threaten us). I know there are different complaints one could make about the current administration ... But the words that are inscribed on this building mean something. The First Amendment means something and it's internalized in the American mind. ... In Europe it's not internalized ...

On the differing reactions to the story around the world: In the United States, Snowden was reviled as a traitor by the intelligence establishment and hailed as a hero by civil libertarians. Citizens of other countries viewed the disclosures through their own particular lenses, Rusbridger said.

... In Britain the politicians didn't really want to debate the issue. They wanted to attack The Guardian... They weren't very interested in this balancing act that we ask them to do on our behalf ... balancing our civil rights and liberties with our security.

On the fallout from the Snowden disclosures: Rusbridger hopes intelligence agencies are better prepared to negotiate with journalists over the publication of sensitive material.

The big question for the future is that these massive databases don't seem to be very secure. We've seen relatively young, relatively junior people like Chelsea Manning (who gave the State Department documents to Wikileaks) and Edward Snowden, people who work for the government, able to purloin vast amounts of documents. It's likely to happen again.

On what will happen to Snowden now: Rusbridger and McAskill traveled to Moscow in July to interview the whistleblower, who was granted asylum by Russia. He faces espionage charges if he returns to the United States.

... My impression is that he doesn't have access to anything. I don't think the administration considers him a threat. ... We have material. Glenn has material. ... The New York Times has the material that The Guardian had, a copy.

On whether Snowden has regrets:

Not at all. I think he went into it knowing that this was going to change his life forever. I think he felt that this raised enormous questions that society hadn't either known about or dealt with or that we as citizens had given our consent to. I think he felt it really important that this question should be given back to society to discuss, and I don't think he regrets that.

On the importance of journalism and journalism institutions in a free society: Rusbridger harkened back to the founding of The Guardian after the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester. The paper would publish a true version of events and hold those in power to account.

I think of journalism as like a fire service, or like a water utility. It's one of the essential things a society needs in order to function. ... Going through Snowden, I'm even more convinced of the value of a newspaper. It doesn't have to be a printed thing, but a resilient organization with professional training and standards, that when it comes under ferocious attack can defend its journalism. That's such an important institutional idea.

On the biggest threat to free speech and freedom of the press around the world: Rusbridger worries about the erosion of those rights in countries that historically have supported them, and the message that sends to the rest of the world.

... Turkey is behaving horribly towards journalists. And that's really crucial because there are lots of much nastier Arab and Middle Eastern regimes ... so if Turkey goes, lots of people are going to follow the example of Turkey. Equally when you see countries like Australia and the UK and to some extent America behaving in a repressive way toward whistleblowers and journalists, that's a disaster, because the rest of the world is watching what we do. ... Others will think that's an OK way to behave.

We understand the threat of terror, but if terror is going to be used to trounce 300 years of civil liberties, that's a disaster for the rest of the world.

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Edward Snowden, spying on citizens and freedom of the press ...