Glenn Greenwald managed to leave the stage almost 10 minutes after that session of the conference was formally ended. Where? PUC-Rio. Local time: 14h13. Today.
The university is conveniently located for him, since he lives in the city of Rio de Janeiro. I wonder how many know this, for he is t-h-a-t New-York-born journalist who aired, through the British The Guardian, Snowden's unauthorized investigation on NSA spying on normal citizens. Even one of those huge Brazilian newspapers wrongly wrote the other day that Greenwald was a 'British journalist'. And those powerful media insistently claim they double-check everything they publish.
Greenwald was rather anxious at first, should the number of times he touched his nose be a good indication of, at least, a bit of discomfort. He shared the stage with Margo Smit, a reddish-skin due to sun exposure who seemed confident at the beginning, but changed to an upset mood when the questions were transferred to the audience.
As he started talking, Greenwald relaxed, forgot his nose, and gave a long, rare testimony of real intellectuality, consciousness and friendly spirit. He has certainly assimilated the 'carioca way', never showing any bit of impatience, contrary to the woman besides him on the stage.
In order to please you, readers, so busy with less important matters, but rather curious about this matter, I will surrender to your desire and write just a... summary. And in something similar to the horrible bullet-point format.
Greenwald's most remarkable phrases were, according to my own judgment, the following:(most not literally, every bit of sound, but almost there)
At The Guardian, 99% of the times we consult the White House(the American government) before publishing something delicate.
[the justification for the above] The only way you, as a journalist, avoid prosecution is by proving you do what you do to inform the public, not to hurt any government. That's why we consult the USA [before publishing a delicate article].
The key point is that the US government hasn't given any explanation for spying on Petrobras [Brazilian oil co.] and the Brazilian energy minister. Nobody thinks there are terrorists at Petrobras...There is huge evidence [but not proof] that the reason for that spying is economic, is linked to companies’ interests.
Snowden's data [captured from NSA]is not just in my hands, neither in his. Laura Poitras [documentary film maker] has them, and people around the world too. If something happens to me, there is no way to stop the report [based on the Snowden's action].
We were locked with Snowden six hours in a room in Hong Kong [to evaluate whether his claims were legitimate or not]. We were eventually convinced about the legitimacy of the files, about his intentions and his reasons for doing that, which were of consciousness.
ABOUT THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM:
The Internet allows for the real journalism. A journalist now has means to survive without submitting to the big companies, which have increasingly gone in the direction opposite to real journalism.
As more journalists act courageously, even more will do that too. Courage is contagious, and thus the future of journalism seems exciting.
PRIVACY:
There has been a reversal in this basic principle that the government should be transparent and the individual totally private. That is, everyone must know what the government is doing but the government cannot know what the individual is doing.
WHERE THERE IS NO READY ANSWER- THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE:
The question was posed by a man rather from the back: How far can a news company go in backing a whistle blower?
Greenwald did his best in trying to answer till finally declaring: "It is a hard navigating act".
Even though Greenwald stressed that the source (the person who brings the information, e.g., Snowden) deserves all possible support, it was not made clear when it is, or is not, safe to help the source. "If you hire an apartment so that the person can hide, are you preventing legal procedures and thus can be involved in the crime?", proposes Greenwald.
That issue remained in the dark. All in all, Greenwald was pure light, in perfect tune with the climate of the Wonderful City. A city I love myself for many reasons.
During the entire lengthy event, Greenwald showed the most sincere willingness to hear and explain. Several times he resorted to Portuguese. All this empathy irritated the 'red' woman, Margo, in the end, what was particularly clear when a man stood up for a question, but did not go straight to it. He praised Greenwald's courage, and went on to declare he was proud of the journalist. Reuters and many other matters ahead, he had not posed a question yet. Pressed by Margo, the man asked, originally in Portuguese, addressing Greenwald: “Could you give me ten minutes after this ends?” Margo then mocked: "This is like a message found in the underground: 'Baby I love you. Would you marry me?'” Greenwald, however, stayed under control and replied after Margo's cunning comment, “Yes, I will be around afterwards.”
The man was seen on the stage as soon the session closed. Many others would follow him in a minute to the point no one could spot Greenwald among the mounting little mass.
I wish I myself could jump on the stage as well. I might also jump on a chair to see him, as someone actually did.
But the key thing to do is to post this report for a multitude of others.
Greenwald does deserve all the attention that we, normal citizens, might still be able to give to our own lives.
Attempting a short, well done loop, I come to the beginning of Greenwald's interview, when he declared, so simply and inspiringly, that "surveillance kills the soul of a human being". Even those who allege privacy is not important since they have "nothing to hide", even those "deny opening up their email passwords" and other similar data. So even they, stressed Greenwald, have the intuition that privacy is crucial.
It undoubtedly is.
Most did not have that in mind when left Greenwald with little air to breathe, just after the formal interview ended. And most of us do not have that in mind most of the day; we have been deaf to our intuition. The consequences of so much exposure on the net - without consciousness - are starting to be felt by many more people. Therefore,
Snowden's s initiative has been more decisive than most can realize.
Even after stressing how Snowden was 'autonomous', fully conscious of what he was doing and how aware he was of the importance of all that, Greenwald had to face this question from the audience: "Is Snowden possibly happy after all?' The subject had turned to the discussion of why he ended up in Russia, instead of in Hong Kong or Ecuador. Margo did not disguise her embarrassment with the answer she got after asking Greenwald if Snowden had considered Belgium [as a destination to escape]. Greenwald's blunt answer:” If he had gone to Belgium, he would be in prison by now”.
Belgium, the base of the European Union, would not have resisted the pressure from the US, added Greenwald. Margo then showed her tongue while forcing a smile.
But is Snowden happy? Greenwald was eventually less inspiring, out of tiredness, almost certainly: “Being in Russia is a lot better than in prison for life in the USA”.
Snowden deserves all our respect and praise as well. He gave up his life - well paid job, status, Hawaii, cute girlfriend. But we do not praise him. In Brazil, the spirit of the mafia prevails. Of course, it also prevails elsewhere, but I guess not many are aware about this feature among Brazilians.
The other day, a young man was asking for the ketchup usually available on the counter of that snack bar. I shot: “This woman here has taken the single bottle to her office”. She accused: You, such a "dedo-duro"[ a whistle blower]!” Silence is the rule among the Brazilian population.
That makes one more reason to insist that Greenwald was pure light in Rio today.
Also worth noting, most seats in the auditorium were vacant. It was an unusual lunch time show. Greenwald, however, was among the few favored by that in one sense or another. Were the place crowded, he would have to battle much harder just to breathe as the stage was invaded.
That harsh time for his interview was set purposefully to diminish audience? Impossible to be sure of. But then what? The Internet is here. This post is on air. To make real journalism already an exciting reality.
The 'professional' press - as the big Brazilians news companies call themselves when despising us, independent journalists - will not report much, much of what is reported here in this post.
This lastly leads me to something I do not wish to leave out of this 'summary': Greenwald has stated that the most shocking regarding Snowden's files are still to be released.
This is not an anticipation strategy; it is the truth, claims Greenwald.
None of those who had just listened to him would doubt that.
USEFUL LINK: http://br.gijc2013.org/
the site of the Global Conference on Investigative Journalism, the set of the events addressed in this post.
