University to host major event on society and surveillance after the Snowden leaks
2 June 2015
A major conference on 18th and 19th June 2015 in Cardiff will bring together journalists, international researchers, privacy advocates and technology developers to discuss state-media-citizen relations in the aftermath of the Snowden leaks
The event forms part of a wider research project being led by Cardiff University entitled 'Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society', which is exploring the nature, opportunities and challenges of digital citizenship in light of the government surveillance measures revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
The conference will present the preliminary findings of the research and expand on key themes that shape and manifest contemporary structures of governance in a 'surveillance society', including policy, technology, civil society and news media.
The conference will also be the first major event after the General Election for digital rights activists, scholars and technology experts to discuss the implications of the newly-introduced Investigatory Powers Bill (dubbed the 'Snooper's Charter' by critics).
Speaker line-up:
- Ben Wizner (American Civil Liberties Union, Edward
Snowden's lawyer)
- Gus Hosein (Privacy International)
- Annie Machon (former MI5 intelligence officer and whistleblower)
- Javier Diaz (Open Rights Group)
- Tony Bunyan (Statewatch)
- James Ball (The Guardian)
- Gavin MacFadyen (Centre for Investigative Journalism)
- Mark Andrejevic (Ponoma College)
- Kirstie Ball (Open University)
- Andrew Clement (University of Toronto)
- Ian Brown (Oxford University)
- Seda Guerses (New York University)
It will include academic presentations and reflections, strategy meetings on policy reform, as well as a hackathon to develop technical tools for secure communication.
A session entitled 'Information Security for Journalists' will also
present tools and strategies that journalists can use to improve online
communication among each other and with sources.
The event will also present the 'Portable Snowden
Surveillance Archive' - a fully text-searchable Internet-based archive created
by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and researchers at the University
of Toronto.
The research underpinning the conference is taking place at Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies (JOMEC), led by Dr Arne Hintz, Dr Lina Dencik, Prof Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Prof Ian Brown (Oxford University) and Dr Michael Rogers (Technical University Delft).