Edward Snowden awarded with German 'Whistleblower Prize'

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who exposed the most extensive US global surveillance operations, has been awarded this year's German "Whistleblower Prize" worth $3,900 in absentia. The biennial award was given to Snowden, 31, at a ceremony in Berlin on Friday in recognition of his "bold efforts to expose the massive and unsuspecting monitoring and storage of communication data, which cannot be accepted in democratic societies," organisers of the prize said.