We're definitely in an era where the government wants to keep more secrets and it wants to come after anyone who's exposing those secrets and in many cases exposing government illegality. They're coming after the journalists and they're coming after the whistleblowers. It's not a good sign if the government is expending much energy trying to find out who journalists are talking to.
Laura PoitrasI think it's radical to censor information because the government asks you to. That's radical.
Laura PoitrasIn all my work, I'm interested in trying to understand the human consequences of government policies.
Laura PoitrasPeople are starting to understand that the devices we carry with us reveal our location, who we're talking to, and all kinds of other information.
Laura PoitrasThe free software community should be supported more widely. Iām totally in solidarity with what they do.
Laura PoitrasIn 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.
Laura PoitrasThe most striking thing Snowden has revealed is the depth of what the NSA and the Five Eyes countries [Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the US] are doing, their hunger for all data, for total bulk dragnet surveillance where they try to collect all communications and do it all sorts of different ways. Their ethos is "collect it all."
Laura Poitras