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So this is James Risen.

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You may know him as the[br]Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter

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for The New York Times.

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Long before anybody knew[br]Edward Snowden's name,

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Risen wrote a book in which[br]he famously exposed

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that the NSA was illegally wiretapping[br]the phone calls of Americans.

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But it's another chapter in that book

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that may have an even more lasting impact.

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In it, he describes a catastrophic[br]US intelligence operation

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in which the CIA quite literally[br]handed over blueprints

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of a nuclear bomb to Iran.

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If that sounds crazy, go read it.

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It's an incredible story.

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But you know who didn't like that chapter?

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The US government.

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For nearly a decade afterwards,

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Risen was the subject[br]of a US government investigation

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in which prosecutors demanded[br]that he testify

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against one of his alleged sources.

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And along the way, he became the face[br]for the US government's recent pattern

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of prosecuting whistleblowers[br]and spying on journalists.

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You see, under the First Amendment,

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the press has the right to publish[br]secret information in the public interest.

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But it's impossible to exercise that right[br]if the media can't also gather that news

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and protect the identities[br]of the brave men and women

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who get it to them.

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So when the government came knocking,

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Risen did what many brave reporters[br]have done before him:

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he refused

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and said he'd rather go to jail.

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So from 2007 to 2015,

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Risen lived under the specter[br]of going to federal prison.

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That is, until just days before the trial,[br]when a curious thing happened.

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Suddenly, after years of claiming[br]it was vital to their case,

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the government dropped their demands[br]to Risen altogether.

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It turns out, in the age[br]of electronic surveillance,

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there are very few places[br]reporters and sources can hide.

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And instead of trying and failing[br]to have Risen testify,

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they could have his digital trail[br]testify against him instead.

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So completely in secret[br]and without his consent,

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prosecutors got Risen's phone records.

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They got his email records,[br]his financial and banking information,

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his credit reports,

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even travel records with a list[br]of flights he had taken.

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And it was among this information that[br]they used to convict Jeffrey Sterling,

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Risen's alleged source[br]and CIA whistleblower.

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Sadly, this is only one case of many.

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President Obama ran on a promise[br]to protect whistleblowers,

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and instead, his Justice Department[br]has prosecuted more

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than all other administrations combined.

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Now, you can see how this[br]could be a problem,

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especially because the government[br]considers so much of what it does secret.

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Since 9/11, virtually every important[br]story about national security

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has been the result of a whistleblower[br]coming to a journalist.

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So we risk seeing the press[br]unable to do their job

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that the First Amendment[br]is supposed to protect

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because of the government's[br]expanded ability to spy on everyone.

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But just as technology has allowed[br]the government

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to circumvent reporters' rights,

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the press can also use technology

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to protect their sources[br]even better than before.

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And they can start from the moment[br]they begin speaking with them,

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rather than on the witness stand[br]after the fact.

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Communications software now exists

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that wasn't available[br]when Risen was writing his book,

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and is much more surveillance-resistant[br]than regular emails or phone calls.

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For example, one such tool is SecureDrop,

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an open-source whistleblower[br]submission system

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that was originally created by the late[br]Internet luminary Aaron Swartz,

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and is now developed[br]at the non-profit where I work,

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Freedom of the Press Foundation.

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Instead of sending an email,

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you go to a news organization's website,

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like this one here on The Washington Post.

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From there, you can upload a document[br]or send information

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much like you would[br]on any other contact form.

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It'll then be encrypted[br]and stored on a server

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that only the news organization[br]has access to.

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So the government can no longer[br]secretly demand the information,

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and much of the information[br]they would demand

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wouldn't be available in the first place.

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SecureDrop, though, is really[br]only a small part of the puzzle

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for protecting press freedom[br]in the 21st century.

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Unfortunately, governments[br]all over the world

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are constantly developing[br]new spying techniques

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that put us all at risk.

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And it's up to us going forward[br]to make sure

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that it's not just[br]the tech-savvy whistleblowers,

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like Edward Snowden, who have[br]an avenue for exposing wrongdoing.

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It's just as vital that we protect the[br]next veteran's health care whistleblower

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alerting us to overcrowded hospitals,

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or the next environmental worker

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sounding the alarm[br]about Flint's dirty water,

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or a Wall Street insider

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warning us of the next financial crisis.

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After all, these tools weren't just built[br]to help the brave men and women

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who expose crimes,

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but are meant to protect[br]all of our rights under the Constitution.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)