Snowden, MI5 and me: how the leak of the century came to be published

Ten years on, Nick Hopkins recalls how the Guardian defied the intelligence agencies to publish revelations of mass state surveillance

The phone call came at an unfortunate moment.

It was late May 2013, early evening, during a leaving drink for a colleague in a busy bar in London. At the time, I was defence and security editor, which made me the point person for contact with the UK's intelligence agencies.