Edward Snowden Gets Whistleblower Award In Germany

Over in Germany the Whistleblower award jury has decided to award Edward Snowden with the prestigious title for his efforts in revealing the mass surveillance of the NSA. The jury is formed of members from the Association of German Scientists, the German chapter of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and the German section of global anti-corruption organization Transparency International. The award was last given out in 2011. The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald commented on Snowden’s award:

“If I ran the committee, making the choice of who was to receive this award, it would take me probably one and a half seconds at most to have come to the conclusion that he is the only person deserving of the award this year…He told me in good conscience that he could not sit by quietly and allow privacy and Internet freedom to be destroyed while doing nothing about it.”

Since making his revelations public the “Snowden files” have provoked civil and political outrage in many nations and paved the road for privacy and data protection reforms in many more. Of course whether you believe in whether Snowden did it for a noble cause or just to gain some fame is irrelevant, his revelations will change the digital world forever and hopefully for the better.

Image courtesy of AFP Photo / Human Rights Watch