Edward Snowden to broadcast Channel 4's alternative Christmas Day message
Source: Guardian UK
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who prompted a worldwide debate when he leaked a cache of top secret documents about US and UK spying, has recorded a Christmas Day television message in which he calls for an end to the mass surveillance revealed by his disclosures.
The short film was recorded for Channel 4, which has 20-year history of providing unusual but relevant figures as an alternative to the Queen's Christmas message shown by other UK broadcasters. It will be Snowden's first television appearance since arriving in Moscow.
The address, to be broadcast at 4.15pm on Christmas Day, was filmed in Russia where Snowden is living after being granted temporary asylum by Laura Poitras, a film-maker who has closely collaborated with him on the NSA stories.
In excerpts from the address released by Channel 4, Snowden says George Orwell "warned us of the danger of this kind of information" in his dystopian novel, 1984.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/edward-snowden-channel-4-christmas-day-message
The Queen's Christmas speech is about as much a part of Christmas as turkey and mulled wine.
But over the last 20 years, Channel 4 have rivaled the monarch with their own annual Alternative Christmas Message.
The tradition began in 1993, when the channel invited controversial English writer Quentin Crisp to give his own speech to the nation.
Since then, we've seen comedians, politicians, cartoon characters and everyone in between offered the chance to tell their story of the year that was.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/alternative-christmas-message-watch-8-2941283
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)At one point, Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, recited from memory in Russian an Alexander Pushkin poem, The Prisoner, which he had learned back in his days spying on the Soviet Union. We have nothing to lose except everything, so let us go ahead, said Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department attorney, quoting Albert Camuss warning at the dawn of the nuclear age. Another attendee, the whistle-blowing FBI agent Coleen Rowley, compared Snowden to Benjamin Franklin, who as postmaster general in 1773 helped leak letters from American officials who were secretly collaborating with British authorities.
http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/runner-up-edward-snowden-the-dark-prophet/
bigdarryl
(13,190 posts)He should bring his ass home and face the music.FUCKING COWARD!!
MattSh
(3,714 posts)bigdarryl
(13,190 posts)JoeyT
(6,785 posts)Red Baiters and Dick Cheney fan club to hit these threads first. This place is eat up with right wingers lately.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)set up a secret agency to spy on your own citizens. That citizens are spied on in a democracy is a complete contradiction. You can't have a democracy if there is some power higher than the citizens that spies on the citizens. When some authority spies on the citizens, the authority has established itself as a dictatorship. The society is no longer a democracy, and even the term republic doesn't apply. It is a dictatorship.
snot
(10,655 posts)adirondacker
(2,921 posts)I've always wanted to say that, and your OP seems to be a perfect opportunity.