Stefania Maurizi with Ewen MacAskill

‘I want to live in a society where secret power is accountable to the law and to public opinion for its atrocities, where it is the war criminals who go to jail, not those who have the conscience and courage to expose them.’

It is 2008, and Stefania Maurizi, an investigative journalist with a growing interest in cryptography, starts looking into the little-known organisation WikiLeaks. Through hushed meetings, encrypted files and explosive documents, what she discovers sets her on a life-long journey that takes her deep into the realm of secret power.

Working closely with WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange and his organisation for her newspaper, Maurizi has spent over a decade investigating state criminality protected by thick layers of secrecy, while also embarking on a solitary trench warfare to unearth the facts underpinning the cruel persecution of Assange and WikiLeaks.

With complex and disturbing insights, Maurizi’s tireless journalism exposes atrocities, the shameful treatment of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, on up to the present persecution of WikiLeaks: a terrifying web of impunity and cover-ups.

At the heart of the book is the brutality of secret power and the unbearable price paid by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and truthtellers.

Joining Maurizi at this year’s Greenbelt Festival will be Scottish journalist, Ewen MacAskill. MacAskill worked for 22 years on The Guardian, ending his career in September 2018 as the newspaper’s defence and intelligence correspondent. MacAskill was involved in preparing the publication disclosures from Edward Snowden of the activities of the American National Security Agency. While based in the United States, he was involved in preparing the Edward Snowden revelations concerning the NSA for publication liaising with Snowden and his contact, Glenn Greenwald, who had brought the story to the attention of then GuardianUS editor, Janine Gibson. As a result of his reporting on global surveillance disclosures, he was named co-recipient of the 2013 George Polk Award.

This year’s Greenbelt Festival will be between 24/08/23 – 27/08/23. The date of this talk will be confirmed soon.