Guardian angel

Alan Rusbridger on Snowden, Wikileaks and phone hacking

Alan Rusbridger, former editor of the Guardian Picture: Maura Hickey

The recently retired editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper is a terrifically polite revolutionary.

“I’m making a modest few remarks and picking up a small gong,” read the one-liner email. The “gong” was the Praeses Elit gold medal established by Mary Robinson and the Trinity Law Society. “I hope you might be around for a chat or drink.”

Alan Rusbridger presided over the two biggest newspaper investigations that Britain and the world possibly ever ...