Over the past week, Edward Snowden has spoken at conferences organised for lawyers and journalists to improve professional understanding of surveillance issues and countermeasures.

On Friday 7 November, Snowden answered questions from Trevor Timm and Chris Soghoian at an event designed to encourage news organisations to improve their digital security. The #EncryptNews conference was organised by the Freedom of the Press Foundation in association with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Open Technology Institute and held in Washington DC.

Noting that government was still way behind the curve in its own security practices (http://thehill.com/policy/technology/223371-snowden-congress-needs-to-encrypt-its-emails), Edward Snowden emphasised that while journalists can step up their operational security, this had to be combined with a determination to press for change at a policy level.

A day later, Edward Snowden spoke at an event for young and aspiring lawyers organised by the ECCHR in Berlin. Questions were posed by Edward Snowden’s German lawyer, Wolfgang Kaleck.