So this is James Risen. You may know him as the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. Long before anybody knew Edward Snowden's name, Risen wrote a book in which he famously exposed that the NSA was illegally wiretapping the phone calls of Americans. But it's another chapter in that book that may have an even more lasting impact. In it, he describes a catastrophic US intelligence operation in which the CIA quite literally handed over blueprints of a nuclear bomb to Iran. If that sounds crazy, go read it. It's an incredible story.
這位是詹姆士.瑞森。 各位可能認識他, 因為他是普利茲獎得主, 兼紐約時報的記者。 在大家還沒聽過愛德華.斯諾登 這個名字的時候, 瑞森因為寫了一本揭露 美國國家安全局非法竊聽 美國民眾通話的書 而備受矚目。 但書中的另一章節, 可能有著更深遠的影響。 在這一章節中,他描述了美國情報部門 的一次災難性的行動, 裡面提到,美國中情局 幾乎將整個核彈 的設計藍圖奉送給了伊朗。 如果這聽起來很瘋狂, 你就去讀看看吧。 這是一個驚人的故事。
But you know who didn't like that chapter? The US government. For nearly a decade afterwards, Risen was the subject of a US government investigation in which prosecutors demanded that he testify against one of his alleged sources. And along the way, he became the face for the US government's recent pattern of prosecuting whistleblowers and spying on journalists.
但各位曉得誰不喜歡 這一個章節嗎? 美國政府。 在這之後的十年, 瑞森成了美國政府 調查監控的對象, 檢方要求他, 對他所說的消息來源 提出不利於線人的證據。 這一路來,他變成了 美國政府最近 起訴告密者及監控記者行為 的最佳代言人。
You see, under the First Amendment, the press has the right to publish secret information in the public interest. But it's impossible to exercise that right if the media can't also gather that news and protect the identities of the brave men and women who get it to them. So when the government came knocking, Risen did what many brave reporters have done before him: he refused and said he'd rather go to jail. So from 2007 to 2015, Risen lived under the specter of going to federal prison.
各位看,第一條修正案中提到, 為了公眾利益,媒體有 播報秘密資訊的權利。 但根本不可能落實這項權利, 因為媒體無法收集這些新聞, 並保護勇敢 深入調查的線人的身份。 所以當政府人員找上門的時候, 瑞森像之前勇敢的記者一樣, 他拒絕透露任何信息, 他說他寧願坐牢。 所以從 2007 年到 2015 年, 瑞森在政府監控下 開始了聯邦監獄的生活。
That is, until just days before the trial, when a curious thing happened. Suddenly, after years of claiming it was vital to their case, the government dropped their demands to Risen altogether. It turns out, in the age of electronic surveillance, there are very few places reporters and sources can hide. And instead of trying and failing to have Risen testify, they could have his digital trail testify against him instead. So completely in secret and without his consent, prosecutors got Risen's phone records. They got his email records, his financial and banking information, his credit reports, even travel records with a list of flights he had taken. And it was among this information that they used to convict Jeffrey Sterling, Risen's alleged source and CIA whistleblower.
就在審判前幾天 奇怪的事情發生了。 政府在這幾年宣稱 這個案子對他們很重要, 但突然間,政府停止了 所有對瑞森的要求, 原來,在電子監控的年代, 記者和線人幾乎無處可躲。 與其一次次要求瑞森舉證 又被一次次拒絕, 政府選擇用他的電子記錄 來做為他的不利證明。 在完全機密且 未經同意的情況下, 檢方拿到了瑞森的通話記錄。 他們有他的 email 紀錄, 他的財務狀況與銀行資訊, 他的信用報告, 甚至他搭飛機 旅行的紀錄清單。 而這些資料,讓檢方認定 杰弗瑞.斯特林 就是瑞森的消息來源 也是中情局的告發者。
Sadly, this is only one case of many. President Obama ran on a promise to protect whistleblowers, and instead, his Justice Department has prosecuted more than all other administrations combined. Now, you can see how this could be a problem, especially because the government considers so much of what it does secret. Since 9/11, virtually every important story about national security has been the result of a whistleblower coming to a journalist. So we risk seeing the press unable to do their job that the First Amendment is supposed to protect because of the government's expanded ability to spy on everyone.
很遺憾,這只是 眾多事件的其中一件。 雖然歐巴馬總統一再地 承諾要保護告密者, 但他的法務部門卻已經起訴了 比其它行政部門 加起來還要多的人。 現在,各位可以體會到 這將會是個大問題, 尤其當政府對於他們的 機密如此重視的時候。 自從 911 之後,幾乎所有 關於國家安全的重大新聞 都是由線人提供給記者的。 因為政府的監控行為 遍及到所有人身上, 所以我們看到新聞界不敢行使 第一修正案賦予他們的權利。
But just as technology has allowed the government to circumvent reporters' rights, the press can also use technology to protect their sources even better than before. And they can start from the moment they begin speaking with them, rather than on the witness stand after the fact. Communications software now exists that wasn't available when Risen was writing his book, and is much more surveillance-resistant than regular emails or phone calls. For example, one such tool is SecureDrop, an open-source whistleblower submission system that was originally created by the late Internet luminary Aaron Swartz, and is now developed at the non-profit where I work, Freedom of the Press Foundation. Instead of sending an email, you go to a news organization's website, like this one here on The Washington Post. From there, you can upload a document or send information much like you would on any other contact form. It'll then be encrypted and stored on a server that only the news organization has access to. So the government can no longer secretly demand the information, and much of the information they would demand wouldn't be available in the first place.
不過正如科技讓政府可以 侵犯記者們的權利, 比起以前,新聞界也可以利用科技 更安全地保護他們的線人。 而且保護幾乎是從 第一時間的談話就開始了, 而不是等到事情發生 站上法庭當證人的時候。 現在很多通訊軟體 是瑞森寫他的書時 所沒有的, 而且反監視能力 比常規的email和電話好很多。 比如,有一款叫做 SecureDrop的軟體, 這是一款開放資源的 檢舉揭發系統, 由一位已故的網路大師 亞倫.斯沃茨所創造的, 它現由我工作的地方 新聞自由基金會 以非營利的方式開發使用。 不同於傳統發郵件的方式, 你可以去某個新聞機構的網站, 比如這裡的華盛頓郵報。 在這裡,你可以 上傳文件或發送訊息, 就像用其他方式傳遞訊息一樣。 訊息之後會被加密 存放在伺服器中, 只有新聞機構的人可以查看。 所以政府再也無法 秘密追踪這些信息, 就算追踪到了信息 也不知道該訊息 最初是來自哪裡。
SecureDrop, though, is really only a small part of the puzzle for protecting press freedom in the 21st century. Unfortunately, governments all over the world are constantly developing new spying techniques that put us all at risk. And it's up to us going forward to make sure that it's not just the tech-savvy whistleblowers, like Edward Snowden, who have an avenue for exposing wrongdoing. It's just as vital that we protect the next veteran's health care whistleblower alerting us to overcrowded hospitals, or the next environmental worker sounding the alarm about Flint's dirty water, or a Wall Street insider warning us of the next financial crisis. After all, these tools weren't just built to help the brave men and women who expose crimes, but are meant to protect all of our rights under the Constitution.
SecureDrop雖然只是 21世紀保護媒體自由 的一塊小小的拼圖。 很不幸地,世界各國的政府 也無時無刻不在 開發新的監視技術 讓我們暴露在風險下。 讓我一起努力向前,來確保 那些高科技告發者的安全, 像斯諾登那樣,擁有自己 揭露惡行的管道來源。 同樣也一樣重要的,也要保護 那些提醒我們醫院過於擁擠, 揭發退伍老兵 醫療衛生問題的告發者, 保護那些對弗林特市污水, 敲響警鐘的環衛工人, 保護那些警告我們 下一次金融危機的華爾街線人。 畢竟,這些工具並不只是保護 勇敢揭露罪行的男男女女。 也是保護我們所有人在憲法上 基本權力的工具。
Thank you.
謝謝各位!
(Applause)
(掌聲)