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So this is James Risen.

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You may know him as the
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter

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for The New York Times.

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Long before anybody knew
Edward Snowden's name,

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Risen wrote a book in which
he famously exposed

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that the NSA was illegally wiretapping
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
US intelligence operation

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in which the CIA quite literally
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
of a US government investigation

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in which prosecutors demanded
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
for the US government's recent pattern

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of prosecuting whistleblowers
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
secret information in the public interest.

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

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and protect the identities
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
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
of going to federal prison.

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

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

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the government dropped their demands
to Risen altogether.

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It turns out, in the age
of electronic surveillance,

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there are very few places
reporters and sources can hide.

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And instead of trying and failing
to have Risen testify,

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they could have his digital trail
testify against him instead.

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So completely in secret
and without his consent,

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prosecutors got Risen's phone records.

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They got his email records,
his financial and banking information,

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his credit reports,

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

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

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Risen's alleged source
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
to protect whistleblowers,

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and instead, his Justice Department
has prosecuted more

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than all other administrations combined.

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Now, you can see how this
could be a problem,

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

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

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has been the result of a whistleblower
coming to a journalist.

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So we risk seeing the press
unable to do their job

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that the First Amendment
is supposed to protect

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

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But just as technology has allowed
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
even better than before.

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

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rather than on the witness stand
after the fact.

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Communications software now exists

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

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and is much more surveillance-resistant
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
submission system

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

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and is now developed
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
or send information

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much like you would
on any other contact form.

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It'll then be encrypted
and stored on a server

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that only the news organization
has access to.

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So the government can no longer
secretly demand the information,

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and much of the information
they would demand

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wouldn't be available in the first place.

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

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for protecting press freedom
in the 21st century.

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Unfortunately, governments
all over the world

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are constantly developing
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
to make sure

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

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

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It's just as vital that we protect the
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
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
to help the brave men and women

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who expose crimes,

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

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Thank you.

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(Applause)