Closed Circuit: True Information

The Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) and the ICA present Closed Circuit, a series of broadcast discussions on the status of information in the age of digital media.

For the second episode, writer Simon Akam, journalist and editor Joseph Farrell, lawyer Mary Inman, New York Times-bestselling author Tom Mueller, and former assistant to Harvey Weinstein Zelda Perkins discuss the controversial publication of protected information.

“We shouldn’t be heroes [for whistleblowing]. This shouldn’t be brave. This should be normal.”
Zelda Perkins

Amid crackdowns on whistleblowers, the increasingly controversial use of NDA’s to control information and the role of radical publishers like Wikileaks in making private information available to the public, where do we draw the line when it comes to the publication of true, but sensitive or potentially damaging information? With a plethora of new tools to make information visible, what are the responsibilities of whistleblowers, artists and investigators?

“Secrecy, by and large, is toxic to democracy.”
Tom Mueller

“What whistleblowers do is hold up a mirror to an organisation. To say: you’re not doing this right. You can do this better.”
Mary Inman

Joseph Farrell

Joseph Farrell is a British journalist and editor who has worked for the Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, WikiLeaks and is currently heading up the NGO Tenure.

Mary Inman

Mary Inman is a partner in Constantine Cannon’s London Office. After 20 years representing whistleblowers in the U.S, she moved to London in July 2017 to launch the firm’s international whistleblower practice.

Simon Akam

Simon Akam is a British writer. He worked at the New York Times and subsequently spent several years in West Africa as a freelance correspondent for Reuters and The Economist. In 2015 Simon was commissioned by Penguin Random House imprint William Heinemann to write a narrative non-fiction book on the post-9/11 evolution of the British Army.

Tom Mueller

Tom Mueller is a New York Times-bestselling author whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly and elsewhere. He has reported from 22 countries on a wide range of topics, with recent emphasis on fraud and institutional corruption.

Zelda Perkins

Zelda Perkins is a Theatre Producer for Robert Fox Ltd and a former assistant to Harvey Weinstein. She publicly broke the 20-year silence on her non-disclosure agreement in 2017, facing the risk of legal action to talk about what she faced and its contents.

Partners

29 January 2020 20.00–23.00

Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts London

CIJxICA Talks

This event will be recorded

CIJxICA Talks:

30 October 2019

Closed Circuit: Disinformation

The CIJ and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) present Closed Circuit, a series of broadcast discussions on the status of information in the age of digital media. Bringing together figures from the worlds of journalism, politics, media theory and the arts, the series spans state-sponsored propaganda, ‘fake news’, revised histories, and the role of non-disclosure agreements and whistle-blowers in the shaping of public perceptions.