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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEdward Snowden Nominated For Prominent European Human Rights Prize
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has been nominated for a human rights award in Europe.
Snowden is one of seven on the short list for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded annually by the European Unions Parliament.
The award, named for the famed Soviet dissident, has been handed out since 1988 to exceptional individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression, its website says.
The Greens/European Free Alliance group and the Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left both nominated Snowden for the award, citing his national security leaks as the reason.
"Through his action, Mr. Snowden revealed systematic and widespread violation of fundamental rights, notably freedom of expression and the right to privacy, by these spying programmes, and triggered a ground-breaking, global debate on issues of mass surveillance, government secrecy and information privacy," the groups said in nominating him.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/325811-snowden-nominated-for-prominent-european-human-rights-prize#ixzz2gVrn6ChQ
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,271 posts)It was seven nominees a couple of weeks ago: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20130916IPR20013/html/2013-Sakharov-Prize-for-Freedom-of-Thought-seven-nominations
gulliver
(13,168 posts)He made it (ever so slightly) more difficult for the NSA to spy on them. And it is unbeatable domestic politics. It is actually a condemnation for an American to be nominated for those reasons.