
Edward Snowden being interviewed by the Council of Europe - shdon
http://webtv.coe.int/index.php?EventID=19&language=EN
======
shdon
It was live when I posted it. Ended about 15 minutes ago. Summary from memory:

\- The interviewers asked questions about his relationship with the press,
specifically Snowdens request/condition that the media confer with the
governments involved about what could and could not be published, given
implications on national security. \- Did Snowden personally look through all
the material? Pretty much, yes. \- Danish representative asked about the
involvement of Denmark (the reply was a very diplomatic answer to the effect
that such rumours should not be considered unfounded). \- They asked about his
relationship to the Russian government (none official, bureaucratic contact
mostly conducted through lawyers, they probably consider him a pain in the
ass). \- Would others, such as Russia and China have similar abilities? Most
probably, yes.

At the end, they lost the connection with Snowden and there was some outrage
at EU governments denying Snowden asylum or even entry into the country to
testify. There was some mention of extra problems brought to light by
Snowden's revelations and things that need to be fixed, including in the
treatment of whistleblowers.

~~~
mercurial
About Denmark, there was a longer article in Information about it recently,
which I still have to muster the courage and the dictionaries to read in
details, but it sounded like "not unfounded" was quite the understatement.

~~~
Create
Telenor owns networks in 12 countries.

Cable connections were opened to Denmark in 1867 and to Great Britain in 1869.

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/13/cia_rendition_jet_wa...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/13/cia_rendition_jet_was_waiting_in_europe_to_snatch_snowden/)

------
mercurial
Wrong title. The European Council consists of the political leaders of the
member states, that is, the very people who were (and presumably, still are)
accomplices of the NSA, and muttered a few embarrassed words when the Snowden
documents came out.

The Council of Europe, which is the group doing the interview, is a European
human rights organization. The EU Court of Human Rights is a Council of Europe
body.

~~~
andyjohnson0
_" The EU Court of Human Rights is a Council of Europe body."_

I think you mean the European Court of Human Rights.

~~~
mercurial
I did, yes.

~~~
currysausage
The official names of European institutions - and what even high-profile
journalists and lawyers make of them - are a constant source of head-shaking
(and amusement). _Council of Europe_ (non-EU) ≠ _European Council_ (EU) ≠
_Council of the European Union_ (EU). _Court of Justice of the European Union_
= _European Court of Justice_ \+ _General Court_ (+ others; all EU).

Of course, the EU has 24 official languages, and needless to say, the
translations of these terms are rarely literal, so the confusion is
multiplied.

Seriously, the people who come up with this are either brain-dead or they
don't _want_ ordinary people to understand this system. I don't know which
option frightens me more.

------
ewood
The hearing was dealing with the wider topic of whistle blowing both in
relation to governments and multi-national corporations. Snowden was offering
testimony on his specific circumstances and on what protections should be
offered to whistle blowers. The committee memo is here
[http://whistlenetwork.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/as-
jur-201...](http://whistlenetwork.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/as-
jur-2014-02-en-1.pdf)

Interesting that Pieter Omtzigt, the Dutch committee member, seemed to suggest
in his comments at the end that technical problems with the video link to
Snowden might be related to interference by an outside party. He also
commented that the committee had tried to facilitate Snowden's attendance in
person but seemed to imply that the UK and Germany had blocked the attempt.

There was also a member of a whistle blower's support organisation (I forget
the name) who had some interesting comments at the end about the challenge of
protecting whistleblowers at multinationals who may not have protection in
their own country but who may be releasing information of importance to
another country's citizens eg: say a German company poisoning a river in South
America but the German employee does not have whistleblower protection in
their own country.

------
tormeh
You can watch current ongoing proceedings by clicking on "live". It made me
really dislike someone called Sir Gale. He was speaking in a debate over
"Violence in and through the media". You can guess the rest.

Edit: Oh God. It's basically old people complaining and thanking each other.

~~~
taejo
It would be nice if they balanced the original audio and interpretation so
that one could hear the interpretation clearly.

~~~
tormeh
You can list to it without the interpretation or interpretation in a different
language. It's below the video.

~~~
taejo
Yes, but with the interpretation on I found that the interpretation was about
the same volume as the original track, which I found difficult to follow. Of
course this probably depends on the speaker and interpreter.

------
zimbatm
Anyone followed what was going on ? The meeting seem to have ended now.

~~~
BillFranklin
Don't think it's started yet. Anyone else know anything?

------
yourad_io
Any links to an archived version / summary / transcript?

------
dingdingdang
When, what? Is it happening now or in a week?

~~~
shdon
It was live when I posted it. Ended about 15 minutes ago.

~~~
dingdingdang
:/ recorded somewhere? Thanks for posting!

------
Create
We begin therefore where they are determined not to end, with the question
whether any form of democratic self-government, anywhere, is consistent with
the kind of massive, pervasive, surveillance into which the Unites States
government has led not only us but the world.

This should not actually be a complicated inquiry.

[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/27/-sp-
privac...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/27/-sp-privacy-
under-attack-nsa-files-revealed-new-threats-democracy)

------
higherpurpose
Did it end? Or when does it start? It seems they're talking about "violence in
the online/media" right now.

------
BillFranklin
Wonder if Snowden has stopped using webmail after Lavabit? If not would love
his comments on Lavaboom.

