James Ball is an award-winning journalist and author. After completing a Master’s degree in investigative journalism aged 21, he cut his teeth at The Grocer before progressing to the Times, the Telegraph, Dispatches and Panorama. In 2010, he joined the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to work on the Iraq war documents, and was poached by Julian Assange to join WikiLeaks. He became the Guardian’s data editor in 2013 and was a key member of the tight-knit team investigating the documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, for which they won a Pulitzer Prize. In this in-depth interview, he describes the clandestine methods used to keep the investigation under wraps, argues that data ‘holds the key’ to keeping governments accountable – and reveals what it was really like working for “serial liar” Julian Assange.