Snowden receives "Whistleblower Prize" in Germany

Source

The award goes to people who "reveal grave abuses and dangerous developments for people and society, democracy, peace and the environment in the public interest," watchdog Transparency International said on its website.

Explaining why Snowden received the award, Hartmut Grassl from the Federation of German Scientists said, "An open society needs civil courage and brave people like Edward Snowden, so that abuses are revealed and prevented."

Snowden's revelations have also caused a heated political debate in Germany, after a report by news weekly Der Spiegel said documents provided by Snowden showed that German services cooperated closely with the NSA and used its Internet spy software XKeyscore.

Germany's domestic intelligence service BfV has said it was only testing the Internet tool, which Der Spiegel said can store several days' worth of Internet traffic data and content as well as key words from online search engines and Google Maps.

The US documents reportedly also praised the "eagerness" of foreign intelligence service BND President Gerhard Schindler to cooperate more closely with the NSA and said the German government had modified its interpretation of privacy laws to allow more flexibility in data sharing.

For me as a german, this story is of some significance, especially with upcoming elections in September and generally, i understand the decision to award Snowden with the "Whistleblower Prize" as a important statement.

With Germany's dark history in mind, Snowden's referrence to the Nuremberg Declaration has an even deeper meaning for german citizens.

“I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: ‘Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.’”

If only for this reason alone, the Snowden saga has triggered a public debate which was well overdue. Do we, in the so called 'free world', accept the total surveillance and the invasion of privacy as a new reality, or do we take a collective stand and reaffirm the protection of personal information as a basic human right?

Wherever this will lead us to, one thing is for sure. From now on, government officials and policy makers are unable to invoke the euphemistically dubbed 'Plausible Deniability'. No one can claim anymore that they did not know.

Wow, maybe he should frame it up and post it on his facebook account with the caption, "You Mad Obeezy?!" Or tweet it, it would be hilarious.

reply to post by talklikeapirat

Originally posted by talklikeapirat

For me as a german, this story is of some significance, especially with upcoming elections in September [...]

If only for this reason alone, the Snowden saga has triggered a public debate which was well overdue.

Same here.

The timing of this story and our elections is just perfect.
I hope the upcoming campaigning will add pressure to the debate so we can learn more about what was really going on in terms of complicity with the NSA.

*Oh, and congrats to Snowden for the award!