In Britain, it's bred into you, the idea that you can't really change anything, so why bother. When I went to school in America, it was the total opposite view - you, as an individual, can change anything and everything. It's how you're raised.
— Heather Brooke
If you don't think there is any value in the work I, or any other serious journalists do, then don't spend your money on it. At least you have the choice.
Whether I'll get the chance to write fiction, I don't know. I could do political conspiracy thrillers, couldn't I? With an investigative journalist as the heroine.
The way the Establishment deals with people like me is to ignore them. When you become unignorable, they will try to smear you, and that's what I feared for a long time. Now I have somehow vaulted into this space where it's difficult for someone to smear me because it would look as though they were being vindictive and spiteful.
If you really believe in a cause, let the cause speak for itself. And if you, by your personality, are damaging that cause, if you really believe in it, you step aside.
There are corporate private investigators, companies doing very forensic background checks on people. They buy data, they get their own data... They don't want their industry publicised.
There's a lot of hand-wringing going on about the death of journalism and particularly the death of investigative journalism. What I see is that there is more need than ever to have experienced information processors - people who can look through this mass of data.
If any of us were faced with a huge bag of free money and very little accountability, it would be human nature that you would make the most of it.
When you're a crime reporter, you see the nub of what life's about, and you don't have much patience for the falsity of politics.
When I came to Britain I was in awe of the British press, afraid of them. But they're not as ferocious as people think. In some instances they are, but when it comes to taking on power they're really deferential.
I've written for 'The Times' because they have valued what I do enough to pay me. The 'New Statesman' magazine also asked me to write an article, but they didn't want to pay me anything. To me, that shows how much they value quality journalism.
I like to write books and cause trouble.
We are not naughty children, and the state is not our parent.
The values of WikiLeaks have been completely overshadowed by Julian Assange.
There is a very intense culture of secrecy in Britain that hasn't yet been dismantled. What passes for transparency here would serve any secret society well.
What the Internet has done is it has decentralised power.
There's not a self-regulating group of nice fair-playing people in politics. There are a lot of dodgy people in politics.
I've always worked on the fringe of the British press establishment, carving out this niche for myself.
Newspapers are not free and they never have been. They can appear to be so, but someone, somewhere is covering the costs whether that is through advertising, a patron's largesse or a license fee. Advertising is no longer subsidising the industry and so the cost must fall somewhere - why not on the people who use it?
I never thought I would get married. I didn't think I was that type of person.
It is scrutiny by the general public that keeps the powerful honest.
People are used to getting a lot of information quickly, and they're used to being quite empowered as consumers, and they go to governments expecting a similar treatment; they want to find data and they want to influence events quickly, and yet they come into this brick wall.
The biggest abuses in society happen when people are not able to communicate and not able to connect.
What the interconnected age in which we live allows us to do is instantly connect with each other.
I know people don't like America very much, but the one thing it's very good on is local government.
